


Midgarstuck

by aeris7dragon



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Homestuck
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossover, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-18
Updated: 2012-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-29 18:07:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 39,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/322674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeris7dragon/pseuds/aeris7dragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>FF7/Homestuck crossover AU.</p><p>Also, I've named the DirkXJake pairing. They are GunBlade. XDD</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Two adolescents, both with buck teeth and black hair, lay in the grass with their bright, bespectacled eyes scouring the night sky, waiting for the predicted meteor shower. The boy pointed up as he saw a star move, and the girl clapped her hands excitedly, reaching to scratch beneath the jaw of the fluffy, white dog beside her.

–

A young woman and her younger sister, both with platinum blonde hair, gazed up at the same sky, through the hole in the ceiling of a decrepit church a long distance away. They had come to see the monument to a warrior inside the eroding chapel, and stayed for the light show. Neither made a move for their mobile phones as they alerted the women to someone's contact, instead wishing on as many shooting stars as they each could.

–

A young man tinkered with his grandfather's old airplane as his older sister looked on, holding two cups of steaming tea in her hands as she beckoned him toward her. As he obliged, he took a mug from her hands, and both enjoyed the sweet tang of pomegranate as the stars reflected in their eyes. He watched, fascinated, and decided he would have the plane fixed tomorrow so he could be closer to the stars.

–

Another young woman with raven hair stood from her leather cot, a gift from the natives she was staying with. She gathered with her two classmates – a girl with bushy auburn, almost purple hair and a small, slight girl with her hair cropped up above her shoulders and styled to look animalistic – to listen to the wisdom taught by the elders regarding the meteors. They spoke of a time, not long before the girls were born, in which one meteor stood to threaten all life on the planet, and they listened intently as the shower blazed above them.

–

A man and his brother stayed indoors for the duration of the night, but the younger sat up in his bed and stared out the window, awed despite himself. After a while, his older brother joined him, an arm around his charge's shoulders as they enjoyed the spectacle together.

–  
Four people with red headwear and light weapons were careful to make no sound as they traversed the woods with little regard for what was going on in the night sky. At least, three of them disregarded it. But the last, a young woman with a grin like a shark, sat where she was and stared up stubbornly. The other young woman, one with an eye covered with a patch, grabbed the other's wrist and they moved on to their target.

\--

A lone male slumbered restlessly in his bed at the same time, unable to free himself completely from the terrors the night consistently thrust upon him. He woke in a cold sweat and gave up thoughts of sleep, instead going for a walk outside in the deadened city. The light from the sky distracted him, and he looked up. Unable to stop the tears that flowed freely from his two-colored eyes, he wished fervantly a single wish on the falling streaks of glitter, disbelieving it would ever come true but giving it a try nonetheless.

–

A young man and his best friend - or maybe a little more - thrust their way desperately through the undergrowth, the taller - yet younger - of the two dragging the other along, for he knew that if his friend hesitated they would be lost. Upon crossing the river the older looked up; their pursuers had been left behind long ago, but they had kept up their tiring pace out of fear; and he stopped. The tears had dried on his face long ago, and they were moistened again now, even though the spectacular display in the night sky tried to keep them at bay. His friend, his protector, approached He put his arms around the trembling shoulders, bringing his terrified friend's face to his waiting lips.

–

One more person witnessed the fire of the sky that night. Another young woman, her lush hair auburn in the light but in this darkness indistinguishable from black, ceased her excavating long enough to stare at the sky for a bit, then smiled and put her tools away. The artifacts she might have found in the daylight would stay undiscovered under cover of blackness, anyway, she reasoned. She picked her way carefully toward the camp she had set up earlier that day, but slipped on a half-buried stone in the path, tumbling down the mountain. For a moment, she thought she'd been hurt, but then picked herself up and looked ahead of her. And stared.

–

One young man, unfortunately, was unconscious throughout the entire shower, and woke several hours afterward with a dull throb in his head and a lump in his throat. He ached all over, and couldn't remember why he hurt.

In fact, he couldn't really remember anything.

He looked around. Around him were strange trees; rather than growing straight, they had curved over to form arches, rather like monochromatic rainbows, and the branches that curled upwards after they hit the grass were supporting small, unripened fruits. But there were no clues to suggest how he'd ended up here, and nothing his eyes fell on triggered even a small memory.

He clutched his head and sat, only to leap up again, grabbing at an empty holster instinctively, as he spotted glowing eyes – or, well, an eye - staring at him.

“Calm down, child,” said a kindly, deep voice. “I exist to protect.”

The young man squinted into the darkness; besides the eye, he could make out a glimmer of fire, stronger than a candle's but not strong enough to be a campfire. “Who in blazes are you?” he stammered.

He heard a chuckle, and the eyes elevated somewhat. A large, red, cat-like creature emerged from the shadow of a tree into the moonlight and looked up at him. The boy stepped back despite himself. “It depends. Would you prefer to call me by my given name, or by my family name?”

“Erm... What's the difference, in your case?”

“My given name is Red XIII, though I dislike that name for...personal reasons. Nanaki is the name given to me by my grandfather.”

“...Then I suppose I shall call you that,” the human answered, somewhat confused.

“And what is your name, boy?”

He had to think about that; the dull throb in his head was becoming a bit more than merely bothersome. “Um...Jake.”

“Um?” Nanaki questioned, his single eye narrowing slightly.

“I had to think for a moment. Bloody head's killing me.” Jake sat again, realizing that he was a little more weary than he should have been, considering the “nap” he'd just woken from. How long had he been out, anyway?

“What are you doing here?” Nanaki ased, lowering his haunches to sit as well.

“I don't really know. Can't remember much, really. Bit of a pickle, this is.”

“What the 'pickle' is, is your inability to speak full sentences.”

Jake laughed lightly. “Sorry. I'm getting tired.” His eyes tried to flutter shut of their own accord, and he nearly had to hold them open with his fingertips.

“I see that.” Nanaki approached slowly, pausing when Jake cowered slightly, involuntarily. “I'm not going to harm you, Jake. I just think you need a little more warmth on a night like this.” The beast went past Jake, only to turn back and come around his other side and lie behind him, curled slightly.

“I see. You're not going to eat me while I slumber, are you?”

“I exist to protect,” Nanaki repeated, putting emphasis on the final word. “Besides, I had plenty of time to 'eat you' while you were asleep.”

Jake nodded, exhausted. The pain from however many wounds he had acquired whenever he had acquired them was beginning to numb, and he lay back, using Nanaki as a pillow. The last thing he was aware of was the creature curling a little more to encase him in a circle of soft, warm fur; and then he drifted to sleep.

)O(

Dirk filled the shot glass with the syrupy fluid and knocked it back, efficiently holding back the slight urge to retch all over the counter. Dave looked up from his phone, glancing at him suspiciously.

“Bro, that's, like, the tenth shot of rum you've had tonight. The fuck's wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” Dirk slurred deliberately, coming to sit beside his little brother on the couch and facing the blank TV screen. “I'm just getting ready, that's all.”

“For what, your meeting with the new recruit? Didn't think you had to be drunk for that.”

Dirk grinned. “Fuck off, li'l bro, if he doesn't like me drunk he won't like me at all.”

“Not the point.”

Dirk sighed and leaned back against the couch, looking up at the ceiling. “Fine. I'll stop drinking...if you put away your phone.”

“I'm texting Harley.”

“What? That cute little chocobo farmer?” Dirk laughed. “Yup, my little brother, picking up bitches wherever he goes.”

“Back off,” Dave growled, looking up; the entrance of emotion into his tone was obvious to the one who'd raised him, though an ousider wouldn't have noticed the underlying, threatening tone. “Jade isn't a bitch.”

Dirk grinned. He had an ability to hold his liquor. The same outsider that didn't notice Dave's change in tone would have also thought Dirk was completely sober, but for the smell. “Cool it, Dave, I was messing with you.” Sighing again, he straightened. “I should probably get going. We wouldn't want to keep this Jake guy waiting for me, would we?”

Though Dave's eyes were concealed by his sunglasses, Dirk could see, from his vantage point above his brother, the red irises rolling upwards in exasperation. “Just go, bro. I'm looking forward to having the place to myself.”

“It's not 'to yourself'. Sun hasn't left for the clinic yet,” Dirk pointed out, refering to the old town doctor that they were somehow, distantly related to. “Besides, I'm bringing the guy right back here, remember?”

“Just get out.”

)O(

Jake looked at the slip of paper in his hand, up at the sign above him, and back to the paper, comparing the lettering on the note to the words “7th Heaven” printed on the sign. He didn't know how the paper had ended up in his hand, all he knew was that when he'd awoken the creature called Nanaki had left. “At least he didn't eat me,” he'd thought to himself, as he located the gun nearby that had been in the holster strapped to his thigh.

Now he puzzled over the scribbles on the paper in his hand; they were written in an illegible, childish hand - actually, he wasn't sure if “hand” was the right terminology. It just looked as if Nanaki had found a flyaway piece of scrap paper and some thick charcoal and decided to leave a note or something.

“Gd xo 3dge, f1nd Tt4 H3yeam.” Jake tried to sound it out but failed miserably. “I suppose I can't blame the...cat? Dog? Whatever. It's not like he has very opposable thumbs, I'm just lucky he decided to tell me anything at all.” He'd discerned that “3dge” meant Edge, the city built on the...well, edge of a once majestic metropolis. However, none of the other words made any sense. Except “f1nd”, that obviously meant “find”. But find what? Jake sighed, exasperated. “He couldn't have at least waited for a chap to wake up, could he? Ugh.” He leaned back against the wall, sliding down it to sit on the warm asphalt. He pinched the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses – which were still broken – and closed his eyes.

“Looking for something?” A seemingly bored voice sounded above him.

Jake looked up. Someone had just come out of the building he was now leaning against, and was looking down at him through exaggeratedly pointy sunglasses. The man above him held out his hand, and Jake handed him the scribbled-on paper.

“I can't make out what the devil that note says,” he explained.

The other man laughed as his eyes scoured the paper, a sparkle of recognition coming to his eyes. “Well, I'm pretty sure it's hard to write without opposable thumbs,” he said through a chortle, squatting down. Jake smelled the odor of alcohol and realized the guy had been drinking.

Wait. What had he said?

“How did you know the writer doesn't have thumbs?” Jake asked, astonished.

“Because you came to the right place. You're Jake, right?”

He nodded and took the hand that the man now held out to help himself up. “You must be one hell of a good psychic,” he said.

“Not really, just perceptive. Fancy word for 'I pay attention'.” He kept hold of Jake's hand, shaking it in introduction. “I'm Dirk. Dirk Strider. Welcome to 7th Heaven, home of the notorious neo-AVALANCHE.”

This last part was said just above a breath, despite the distinct lack of city residents nearby, and Jake felt his eyes widen.

 _What have I gotten myself into?_ he wondered as Dirk led him into the bar.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a lot of exposition. Useful for those who haven't played FF7, though it's kind of boring. :I

“Back already?” The apathetically-toned sentence came from upstairs, and Jake turned to see a boy around five years younger than him, wielding a mobile phone and a deadpan expression.

“He was closer than Red said he'd be,” Dirk explained. “In fact, he was right outside. Jake, this's my younger brother, Dave.”

“Yo.”

“Delighted to meet you,” Jake said, and Dave nodded slightly and turned, returning to whatever dark cave he'd come out of.

Dirk pulled out a stool for Jake and delved into a small refrigerator behind the bar, producing two small glasses and a bottle of what appeared to be water. Though, in this environment, Jake doubted water was something they had a surplus of. His suspicions were confirmed as Dirk filled the shot glasses with the liquid and handed one to Jake. “Vodka?”

“Thank you,” Jake answered as he took the proffered beverage, too polite to refuse it. Plus, he wasn't entirely sure if alcohol was something he abhorred or not. He clinked his glass against Dirk's and they both downed the shots. Immediately his cheeks began to burn, and he nearly spat the vodka back out; it tasted more like isopropyl than actual alcohol. Dirk was grinning smugly at him as he forced down the alcohol.

“First time drinking?” he ventured a guess.

“I'm not entirely sure,” Jake replied.

“Oh, right,” Dirk said. “Red said you'd lost your memory or something, I forgot.”

“Red?” He handed the shot glass back to Dirk, who placed both in the sink behind him. “Who is that?”

“Oh, you must call him 'Nanaki' or some shit. I like Red; it's shorter and sounds badass. My kind of name. He told me to apologize for him leaving you there, apparently he was late for a meeting with his friend.” Dirk sat on a stool on the opposite side of the bar from Jake and took off his sunglasses, staring him down.

Jake couldn't look away. He hadn't been expecting this. The irises of Dirk's eyes were a yellow-orange, but that wasn't what kept Jake mesmerized. It was more of the fact that Dirk's eyes seemed to be glowing, like he'd been infused with Mako. No wonder the guy kept them concealed. He barely realized it when Dirk began to speak.

“I have a question for you, Jake.”

“W-what is it?” he stammered, deciding that paying attention to Dirk's eyebrows would be less distracting.

“I know you can't remember much. But do you know of an organization called the WRO, or World Regenesis Organization?”

He shook his head. “I do know they were founded after Meteorfall by a former ShinRa employee, but I'm unsure as to the details.”

He broke off as unfamiliar footsteps sounded behind him, and a woman who looked to be in her forties leaned over the bar to flick Dirk's forehead audibly. “Busy recruiting, eh? He the one Nanaki told us about, that Jake guy?”

“My, I seem to be popular today,” Jake said.

The woman laughed. “I guess that's a yes. Vincent and I're gonna be late tonight, D. He's got that visit with Nanaki, and I've got the clinic to take care of. Don't wait up for us.”

“Like I ever do anyway?” Dirk replied. “We'll see you later, Sun.”

She ruffled Jake's hair, leaning over to whisper in his ear. “Don't worry about Strider, he's cool. Just likes to intimidate people 'cause it's fun. He'll grow on ya.” Dirk lifted an eyebrow as she straightened, obviously having heard what she'd said. “You've been in a fight recently, huh?” she said louder. Call me later if you need treatment.”

Sun turned to head out the door with a grin on her face that would be considered stupid, but that Jake found seemed to be concealing untold wisdom. He stared after her as he noticed something.

“Does she have a wing?” he asked stupidly, even though he'd just seen it.

“No, I didn't see one,” Dirk said sarcastically. “You sure nothing else is wrong with your head besides amnesia? Where was I?”

“The WRO.”

“Oh, yeah. Well, you know that Reeve Tuesti – an old friend of Sun's, actually – founded it, to be a replacement for the government and military that ShinRa used to be. What you probably don't know is how it changed after he and the other former leaders returned to the Planet.”

Jake nodded, the real meaning of the last phrase clear to him.

“Well, they got one of the Deepground running it now, though they didn't know he was from Deepground 'til it was too late. It's still under wraps; not many people know, and he's bent on keeping it that way. He's a former, super-enhanced SOLDIER called Noir; Jack Noir. Apparently he'd risen up from being a member of the volunteer army to being Tuesti's right-hand man via a particularly silver tongue, among other things. Sun thinks he's responsible for the death of Barret Wallace and that that's what led him to lead alongside Tuesti.”

“Do you think he killed the founder, too?”

“Nah. Tuesti had a terminal disease, kind of like Geostigma, only that disease eventually got purged from existence. Something about the Cetra, or something. What he had is still incurable. Sun treated him but was only able to stall the inevitable, like all good doctors; in fact, better than most. She still blames herself for it, though.”

“Oh,” Jake said in a small voice. This was beginning to be a little too much information to take at once.

“Anyway. I was getting somewhere with the whole Jack Noir thing. Sun tried to warn Tuesti about him, apparently, but the guy was just too trusting. After he died and Noir took over, she started the whole AVALANCHE thing again to oppose him.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Back when me and Dave weren't even threads in the fabric of existence, dude.”

Jake stared. “There's no way she's that old! She looks like she's in her mid-forties, fifty at the oldest!”

“Nope. I don't know her exact age, but according to my math she'd be about seventy or so. She doesn't give out any details but apparently she was experimented on with Mako energy at a young age. That's why she's got a wing and looks so young,” Dirk added.

Jake was silent for a moment. “So... where do you and your brother come into play, here?”

“Sun's getting on in years, obviously. Starting to feel the wheels of time turning.” Dirk closed his eyes. He rested his elbows on the top of the bar, knotting his fingers together to create a nest for his chin. “So, when I got old enough – about six years ago – she started teaching me things, and then handed leadership over to me. The WRO is trying to find us, and haven't yet; you'd think the fact that AVALANCHE was based at a bar called '7th Heaven' before would make them a little more suspicious of us, but, like I said, it's been years and we haven't been caught. We've been investigated, but we're too good at covering our tracks.” Dirk paused, eying Jake. “You're looking pale. Do you need to lie down?”

Jake started. He'd been listening to Dirk's expository narration, paying attention to him, and yet at the same time unable to stay completely focused. Now he snapped his green eyes back up to Dirk's orange ones, determined to make a better impression than the one he seemed to be giving.

“I'm fine. Where do so-called recruits like I come in?”

Dirk was silent a moment longer, scouring Jake's face for other signs of exhaustion, and sighed. “Well, neo-AVALANCHE is, like the AVALANCHE in days of old, a terrorist group. With one difference; we're not blowing up Mako reactors.

“See, ShinRa when AVALANCHE was formed was a force backed by money; the president back then wanted to use money to control the world. Sun told me that that president's son once remarked that he, when he took over, wanted to rule the world with fear, before he came to his senses a little too late for redemption. Now, we think Jack Noir wants to use Rufus' old way of thinking. And we're trying to stop that. We haven't been able to scrounge up enough people willing to help us on this, though Red - what with his honesty radar picking out the good choices from the bad - has been able to help a lot, but it's a little hard to expand an army this old and this small. We're short-handed...and low on funds.”

“If you're insinuating that I want to join you primarily based on monetary gain,” Jake said, “then you don't know me very well.”

“You don't seem to know yourself very well, either,” Dirk pointed out.

“Good point. But, in all honesty, money is the least of my desires at the present time.” Jake winced as a remnant of his earlier migraine flashed through his head.

“So, is that an affirmative?”

“I still don't know exactly what your organization's aim is,” Jake admitted. “But, do you trust me enough to tell me all this information and just let me go if I refuse to join you?”

“I've mentioned Red's honesty radar, haven't I?” Dirk answered. “Out of all the prospective recruits he's sent our way that didn't end up joining, not one has ratted us out. Keeps me pretty confident.” His eyes narrowed as a smirk slid onto his face. “Though, that doesn't mean we didn't keep tabs on 'em.”

“I see,” Jake said. He thought for a moment, trying to ignore the small headache that was progressively getting more painful. “Well, I think I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say I'll join you, though I don't know if this will be a permanent affair.”

Dirk gave a crooked, toothless smile and held out a hand. “That's more than what most people give us. Welcome aboard, Jake.”

They shook hands and stood, Dirk reaching for the shades he'd left on the counter top. “From what I understand, you'll be needing a place to stay, too, is that right?”

Jake shook his head. “I really shouldn't be burdening you any longer, Strider. I think I'll go - “

“Where?” Dirk interrupted. “There isn't much room at the motels this time of year, what with the festival in Kalm being right around the corner and everyone holing up here until the day of. And we'd usually be renting out a room upstairs for a couple of those fest-goers. You're lucky you came at a time when we've got them all empty except for the ones we live in.” He put a hand on Jake's shoulder. “Besides, you look about ready to keel over. Red said you were in bad shape, and if Sun pointed it out, then you're a little shit out of luck. You're staying here, and I ain't taking no for an answer.”

Jake sighed as he was shoved up the stairs. “As long as you don't make me drink any more of that blasted vodka.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the fan character, by the way... It's impossible for me to write anything FF7-related and NOT put my old OC in there. XD


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we veer away from Edge for a bit to introduce a few more characters.

“Are you positive that contraption will be able to fly?”

Karkat rolled his eyes, though he knew she probably wouldn't be able to see from her vantage point on the ground below. “Yes, Kanaya. You've asked me five different times in twenty different ways and I've told you the same answer every time. YES, THIS FUCKING PLANE WILL FLY.”

Kanaya raised an eyebrow, the beginnings of a smile playing around her lips. “For one thing, I thought it was called a 'bronco'. For another thing, how did I say something twenty different ways in the five times I asked?”

He threw his hands in the air in exasperation. “Oh, for the love of all that is sane, will you go inside and make some god-damned tea like you said you would two hours ago? I'm trying to work here!” He ignored the laugh that came from below him as he examined the innards of the aircraft. A moment later he heard the door close behind his sister as she went inside, finally leaving him in blessed peace.

Karkat closed the paneling over the now-concealed engine, fixing the sheet of metal in place carefully, then got in the cockpit and leaned back in the worn leather seat. He was, to say the least, proud of himself; when he'd found the Tiny Bronco in the back of his great-great-grandfather's hangar, behind the Shera and the Highwind, the thing had been nothing but a pile of scrap metal. Old, rusty scrap metal. There was firearm damage done to the tail, the whole bottom of the thing practically made of rust; when he asked his father about it, he was informed that the Bronco had been used as a boat for several months, back before Meteorfall. Karkat shook his head, still appalled that the great Cid (he called him that sarcastically) could allow such harm to come to what was once a beautiful machine.

That was when Karkat had decided to repair it. The thing had taken several months - if not a year - to fix, but it was finally ready. Some parts were brand-new, some were salvaged from slightly newer models that Karkat had never felt attached enough to fix. There was just something about the Tiny Bronco that made him feel good. Not happy - he was never happy, he liked to tell himself - but a state that was less pissed-off than he was usually. Looking at the Tiny Bronco, Karkat was able to think, yes, I can fly, despite past experiences that would serve to state the opposite of that thought.

And, buckling the seat belt-slash-harness across himself, he realized that that particular thought had never been more true until now.

)O(

“John! You left your phone in the barn again!” Jade hollered from said barn. “The caller ID says it's Karkat calling!”

The wild chocobo John was attempting to “break” was finally able to buck him off in his temporary lapse in concentration, and he dodged from its lashing talons skilfully - albeit clumsily - as he grabbed for its reins. It fought him as he dragged it to its stable, and Jade hurried out of the way with a small, newly-hatched chocobo in her arms.

Slamming the stable closed, he wrenched his hand back as the chocobo snapped her beak at him. “Ow!”

“You okay?” Jade asked, the fluffy chick in her arms giving its opinion on John's ringing phone in a high-pitched voice.

“Yeah,” John answered. “Her beak just clipped me.” He examined the small point of blood on his arm with a sigh, and started when he realized his phone had just stopped ringing. “Oh, jeez!” he said, snatching it from the shelf where he'd left it and quickly hitting the “redial” button.

“Way to leave me hanging, Egbert,” a snappy voice greeted him after about half a ring.

“Sorry, I was busy with a new arrival,” John said. “What's up?”

A sarcastic silence was all the answer he received, and he suddenly realized what it was.

“The Bronco's done?” Jade looked up from the chick she was holding, which was starting to fall asleep. The excited grin on her face matched her half-brother's.

“No, fuckass, I need about another decade on it. YES, it's done! Jesus.”

John laughed. “That's so great! When are you gonna fly it?”

“I've already flown it; it works great.” Karkat's angry voice barely concealed his own excitement. “Though, I don't know how well it deals with longer distances than a couple laps around Rocket Town; I'm probably gonna have to do some tinkering on it before I want to risk crossing the ocean.”

“Yeah, don't do that unless you know for sure you're not gonna end up crash-landing in the middle of the sea,” John said, mildly disappointed.

“Oh, don't sound like that,” Karkat said, sensing his tone. “I'll come visit you as soon as I'm confident with this thing. It won't be much longer, John.”

“That's so awesome. I'll be sure to have an extra chocobo for you when you come!”

“I've got a fucking airplane, what would I need a flightless bird for?”

“I was gonna show you the cave, remember? We have to cross the swamp to get to it, and I'm pretty sure your Bronco's too big for that tiny piece of solid ground right in front of it. We wouldn't want all your hard work to end up covered in swamp mud!”

“Good point,” Karkat amended. “Well, I'm sure you want me to get there as soon as I can, so I gotta go work on this. I'll see you soon.”

“All right, Karkat,” he replied. “I love you,” he added.

There was a moment's hesitation on the other end of the phone, and John heard a reluctant smile enter his boyfriend's voice. “I love you, too, John.”

Jade was wearing a strange, sparkly-eyed expression as he hung up the phone, and he rolled his eyes at her. “Stop doing that every time I tell him, sis.”

“But you guys are so cute!” she gushed, quiet enough so as not to disturb the ball of downy fluff still cradled in her arms. Her eyes trailed to the wound left by the wild chocobo's beak. “You should probably go wash that,” she added in a more serious tone.

He glanced down; the cut had apparently been deeper than he'd thought, and now his arm was covered in blood. “Shit. I'll be right back, Jade.”

She nodded as he left the barn, gently setting the baby chocobo back in the nest of hay beside its mother.

–

Now sporting a clean white bandage, John sat on the fence bordering the paddock, staring into the sky with a content smile on his face.

Karkat was coming. John still remembered the day they'd met in Edge; John and Jade had been there to visit their friend Dave and his brother, as well as to pick up some seeds from the market there to grow new greens for the chocobos. Karkat had come into the bar while they were reminiscing, complaining about the crowds outside and muttering something about his sister.

To say the two had hit it off pretty quickly would be an understatement; what had started with John playfully flirting under the cloud of a slight alcoholic buzz had ended up with the two waking up the next morning in the same bed – luckily both with their pants still on, though both with headaches induced by the amount of consumption the night before.

Dave still made fun of him about his constant complaining about “not being a homosexual” for years and then making out with a complete stranger. Apparently it was also categorized under “irony”, so John didn't mind as much.

The two had maintained a long-distance relationship for the past year and a half, making plans to visit each other as often as possible, though the fact that they lived on two different continents was a little harrowing. Only a few months later, Karkat had found the small aircraft and saw an opportunity for more frequent visits, and now that the repairs were finally done – or, at least, almost done – John could barely contain his excitement.

I love you, too, John.

Karkat's normally irritated voice always softened when he said those words, and John knew he meant it as passionately as John himself did when he said it.

He couldn't wait.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Which involves an airplane, an evil chocobo, and some cuddles and kissy-stuff.

John was in the barn again, this time helping Jade with the chicks, about a week later. A ball of poofy blue down-feathers was blinking up at him with eyes too big for its face, and John was unable to restrain himself from gently stroking beneath its beak.

The wild chocobo was in its own stable, having bitten John again, this time on the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses. Now the boy's face was split by a long gash that ran from beneath one eye to the other, and there were a few layers of gauze and bandage masking him.

“What are we going to do with her?” Jade asked, jerking her head toward the chocobo. “If she never calms down, I mean.”

“Probably let her go,” John answered. “We can't keep feeding her if she's not - ”

The gradual sound of a large engine approaching cut him off and he straightened, a grin spreading across his aching face. He turned to Jade, who looked confused, then set down the baby chocobo and forced himself to walk – not run – outside.

A small dot in the eastern sky was just visible above the small stack of mountains there, and John watched as it progressively got bigger and bigger until at last it was a small, gray-colored aircraft that landed smoothly on the other side of the small house. All restraint was forgotten as his legs carried him in a sprint toward it.

Toward Karkat.

He was just getting out of the Bronco as John came around the side of the house and tackled him, miraculously not throwing him to the ground. The angry expression that Karkat usually wore melted away into a smile as his own arms went around John to return the embrace.

“Hey, fuckass,” he said gently. “Miss me?”

“No,” John mumbled facetiously, his voice muffled as he nuzzled into Karkat's neck, and was horrified to realize his eyes were wet with tears of happiness. He pulled away and scrubbed furiously beneath the glasses, having temporarily forgotten the bandage was there. “Ow!”

Karkat's hand was immediately on his boyfriend's cheek, stroking questioningly at the layers of fabric on his face. “What happened here? Anything I should kick someone's ass for?”

John grinned. “No, just a wild chocobo. It doesn't like me that much.”

“I see that.” And then their lips were together. The months they'd spent apart felt completely worth it if they got to share moments like this.

“I missed you,” John whispered.

“You said you didn't,” Karkat chuckled.

John smiled, but before he could say anything a shout came from behind him. “Hi, Karkat!”

The boys looked up to see Jade approaching to hug Karkat, though she didn't tackle him like John had. Bec, her fluffy, blind dog, followed behind, brushing against Karkat's legs in welcome like a cat.

“Come on in,” Jade said, yanking on Karkat's sleeve. “Unless you want to see the chocobos first?”

Karkat, though he hated to admit it, was almost as in love with baby chocobos as he was with John; and John didn't mind a little competition in this case. And, because he hated to admit it, John cut in before he could refuse.

“Yeah, we were just feeding them! It'll go much faster if you help.”

Karkat's cheeks became dusted with red. “Okay, I can help with that. I'm starving, though.” The midday sun peeked from behind a cloud as he spoke, as if reminding them that noon was lunch time.

“Dad should be in the kitchen right now. We'll go in when we're done. Come on,” Jade asserted, pulling on Karkat's sleeve again. He let himself be pulled to the barn with little complaint, except when Bec walked in front of him in an attempt to follow Jade.

John caught a sign of movement out of the corner of his glasses, and turned to the kitchen window, where his father was smiling as he chopped up vegetables. Noticing John staring at him, he lifted one hand in a wave. John waved back just before he followed the small parade to the barn.

–

“So, you're the fuckass who hurt my boyfriend?” Karkat stood in front of the wild chocobo's stable, arms crossed over his chest, as he stared down the enraged bird before him. Once the chocobo tired out from her flailing, he put a hand out to grab the reins that John hadn't taken off yet due to facial injury. John and Jade watched with bated breath.

After a moment of feeding the chocobos, Karkat had noticed the restless bird in the corner, and something had caught his interest; John could see it in his eyes. The other boy had gotten up and planted himself in front of the stable.

“Careful,” John breathed now, more to himself, as the chocobo snapped at Karkat's hand. He hesitated, then after a moment's pause reached further and touched the leather straps gently. When the bird did nothing more than huff angrily at him, he gripped the reins more tightly and eased the gate open.

“Easy,” he said soothingly, backing up and gesturing for John and Jade to get out of the way. “Easy. It's all right, you dumbass bird.” The profanity was said in the same even tone as the rest of his sentence, and though the chocobo was still angry she let him lead her out of the barn and into the corral outside.

Once Jade had closed the gate, Karkat let go of the reins. John was held back by Jade's arm held in front of him as the chocobo dashed around, trying to find an escape out of the wide, fenced area; finding none, she returned to stand in front of Karkat, tail feathers raised and wings splayed out in a show of intimidation.

Karkat was not impressed. His stance was open, steadfast; his arms were crossed over his chest again and his legs were shoulder-length apart. He glared up at the threatening bird through his dark eyebrows, his face resolute, and stayed where he was.

When Karkat remained unfazed, the wild chocobo faltered. She unwound slightly, her tail feathers remaining fanned out while her wings pressed against her body, but retained her furious look. Karkat reached his hand out again, only to have it chomped on by a vicious beak. John cried out at this.

However, rather than retract and hurl profanities at her – as would be expected of him – he grimaced in pain and ground his teeth together as he made no move to withdraw his hand. His other hand came around and carded the feathers on the back of the chocobo's head, stroking gently. The beak tightened on his fingers, and this time he was unable to suppress a gasp, but still he did not pull back.

It seemed an age before the chocobo let Karkat's hand go, and John released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. The visitor ran his uninjured hand along the long, feathered neck, crooning comforting gibberish to the bird, and slowly lifted his leg to mount the saddle on her back.

As soon as he was on, however, she bucked violently; if not for his balance he would have ended up on the ground. But as it was, the reins wrapped tightly in one hand and his legs digging into her sides were the only things keeping him from letting gravity work its science. He held on tight as the chocobo bucked and kicked furiously, trying to throw him off – once or twice she nearly succeeded, and John and Jade were ready to run toward him if he fell.

Finally, after several minutes that seemed like hours without being able to unburden herself of the human's weight, the chocobo came to a stop, exhausted. Karkat's hand brushed her neck again, softly, and he spoke softly to her again. “Shoosh. It's okay.”

He guided her to the corral gate, where John and Jade were waiting. “How did I do?” he said, smirking at their gaping faces. “And you call yourselves ranchers.” He slid off the chocobo's back and tickled under her beak. “That's right, you're not such a bad bird, are you?” he joked.

Light applause sounded from the door of the house, and their father approached. “Bravo,” he said. “You seem to have a knack for this. Put her away, though, it's time to eat,” he added, and reached out to ruffle Karkat's hair. “Welcome back, Highwind.”

“Thanks, Mr. Harley,” Karkat replied, as John stood beside him and laced their fingers together.

)O(

It was the end of the day, and Karkat was feeling great about everything, as he always did when he and John were together. The two sat on the edge of John's bed and talked about everything that had gone on since John's last visit to the Highwind residence.

This conversation ended as it always did: with one of them initiating the first kiss. This time it was Karkat who leaned forward first, pulling John toward him with a hand fisted in his blue shirt. They pressed against each other, and Karkat slowly forced John down to lie on the bed beneath him, holding the younger boy down by his wrists.

One of Karkat's hands left John's wrist to cup the back of his head, fingers knotting in his untidy hair. He felt John reach up with his free hand to grip the back of his shirt, pulling the two closer together, and the boy's mouth opened beneath his, nipping lightly at Karkat's lip.

Karkat pulled away then, only slightly; he had missed this, missed John's soft hands on his back. “John,” he said softly, his eyes only half-open. “Do you want to...go farther?”

The other shook his head. “I'm fine like this, Karkat. Sex isn't a mandatory thing for relationships. Besides, this is nice.” His free hand went to Karkat's cheek to brush it with his knuckles.

Karkat smiled. “Yeah, it is.” He went back down, but to nuzzle into John's chest rather than take his mouth again. “It was just getting a little hot in here, that's why I asked.” John's hand was on the back of his head now, petting him, and he closed his eyes.

“Mm,” John agreed. “Well, we should probably go to sleep now. I want to get all the farm things done before we get to the spelunking thing, and that means getting up early.”

John's hand was soft on Karkat's hair. He placed a hand on John's chest to feel his heartbeat, and his head moved in a tiny nod. “Okay. I'll help you tomorrow so it'll go faster.”

“Thanks.”

There was a rustling as John brought a blanket from the foot of the bed to cover them, surprisingly without shifting Karkat too much, and he reached out to turn off the light beside his bed. Promptly that hand returned to Karkat's head, and the latter breathed deep and slow, tightening his arms slightly so the two of them were pressed even closer together. His ear was against John's chest, and the metronomic thudding of the boy's heart lulled him into subconsciousness.

But not before he heard a breathy whisper of, “I love you, Karkat.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the author proves that she can't talk like Gamzee.
> 
> Also, there are more introductions. Six introductions.
> 
> And a chocobo named Casey.
> 
> THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED.

A wide, toothy grin spread across Terezi's face as she leaned forward, and Vriska sighed, shoving a hand in her cousin's face.

“Back off, Pyrope,” she growled.

“You were sighing again,” Terezi said, making no move to back off. “Who were you thinking about this time? Is it still Nitram? Or is it that boy we saw on the farm?” She pressed forward, her shark grin still firmly in place.

“It's neither. Back the fuck off.”

Now the grin melted into a frown as Vriska's tone got more vehement. “All right, now I know something is up. What is it?”

Vriska sighed. “What do you think? We let Nitram and Makara escape. This isn't good for our track record, you know. Noir's not gonna let us off easy.”

“Why, because the only known descendent of Tuesti got away with his stoner friend?” Terezi rolled her eyes. They had been tracking the two deserters for two days now, only now it wasn't so much “tracking” as it was “try to find any sign of anything living and hunt the fuck out of it”.

Terezi snorted. “Come on, you know as well as anyone else in the WRO that Nitram and Makara weren't getting us anywhere fast. Hell, Nitram was usually contact-high as a result of spending so much time with Makara, and he was usually better at his job regardless, but slightly better than nothing still isn't very good. And we all know Noir was planning on killing Makara anyway.”

Vriska glared. “I'm done talking about this. We should rendezvous with the others, don't you think?”

“I guess.” Terezi reached into a pocket and pulled out a small red candy, popping the sphere into her mouth. “Zahhak is probably pissed that we're taking so long with nothing to show for it,” she added, looking around.

Vriska barely noticed when Terezi startled, but did notice when she dropped down to conceal herself behind some especially bushy foliage. Knowing better than to ask what she'd spotted, Vriska followed suit, ducking behind her companion and following the line of her eyes.

When she saw what Terezi had detected, she allowed herself a small, sly smile of her own.

–

Tavros knew something was wrong as soon as he came to. And it wasn't just the fact that his lower back ached like there'd been a bullet through it.

...Oh, wait...

There were people standing over him, two farther away than the person who stood directly over him. After trying to sort through his muddled thoughts and failing miserably, he realized that there were voices talking. Or, well, yelling.

“I said, GET THE MOTHERFUCK AWAY FROM US, you fucking WHORES!” snarled a particularly familiar voice. Tavros blinked his bleary eyes and tried to focus them on the closest shadowy figure.

“Gamzee?” he croaked, and his vision cleared for a moment as if on cue.

The bushy-haired man had a feral expression on his face that softened somewhat as he looked down, the clubs in his hands gripped tight enough to scrape the skin from his knuckles. Tavros blinked again as his vision darkened once more.

“Don't move, Tavbro, I'll get these motherfuckers out of here and then I'll up and take care of you, I promise,” Gamzee said, his tone less angry and more guilty as he spoke to his charge. His face snapped back up to glare at the other two as one began to speak.

“Sorry, Makara, but you two need to come back with...”

All sounds faded out again as Tavros slipped back into darkness.

)O(

“Did you hear that?” John asked, turning to Karkat, who nodded.

“Sounded like a gunshot. Should we go back?”

John shook his head. “If someone's hurt, we should help them!” he asserted. He coaxed his chocobo, Casey, forward, leaving Karkat no choice but to urge his own chocobo – yet unnamed – to follow, despite all the instincts that screamed in protest. _If there's a gun, should we really get involved?_ he wanted to say.

The two had just come out of the cave and, deciding there was enough light to go for a ride, headed for the forest trail up the mountain that John always took.

John slid off of Casey's back when they approached where the sound of the shot originated, signaling for Karkat to stay quiet, and parted the fronds of the undergrowth to peer into a small clearing. Karkat got off of his chocobo's back as well and followed.

There were three people there, two backed up at the base of a small cliff while the other shouted threats and obscenities at them. John tugged slightly at Karkat's sleeve and pointed toward another shape on the ground; Karkat looked closer and saw another man lying on the ground, unconscious.

One of the two uniformed women against the rock wall frowned, appearing tired of listening to the man's unleashed fury. She lifted her rifle a bit, preparing to take aim.

John and Karkat looked at each other. John opened his mouth to speak softly, but all of a sudden, Karkat's chocobo – the formerly wild one – squawked furiously, causing the three to stare in their direction and spot the two watchers. Karkat felt John smash into him, knocking him over, and heard the unmistakeable _pop!_ of a gunshot sound from not more than a few yards away. John grunted in pain.

And then one of the women was standing over him, her eyes squinting over a shark-like grin and the barrel of a beefed-up rifle to bore into his eyes.

–

Gamzee took his chance as he saw the two go down, one clipped in the shoulder by Pyrope's shot. As she dashed over to check the strangers out, Gamzee strode forward, swinging his club deftly at Serket's head. When she crumpled to the ground, he turned and scooped Tavros' limp form from the ground, and left his club on the ground by the agent's head. Muttering a brief apology to the two strangers that had gotten involved, he decided to, in his words, “abscond the motherfuck out of here” before Pyrope turned back to try to stop him.

He didn't look back, instead concentrating on the bundle in his arms as he ran. Tavros needed to be treated, and soon. They had been near the cliff when Serket and Pyrope had appeared, advancing to force them to the edge; and when Serket's gun had gone off – maybe by accident, but he didn't care; it was still a bullet in the gut – his normally airy state of mind had gone straight of the deep end into a pool of rage.

That rage halfway melted as he now stared into Tavros' pale face, still angry that he'd let this happen to him but also more concerned with making sure he was going to be all right. The sounds of pursuit were now nonexistent, and he realized that Pyrope had probably gone back to get Serket or take care of the two strangers.

Until his ears picked up the sound of something larger than human moving toward them.

Before he had time to pick up the pace, two chocobos burst out of the foliage in front of him; the riders were the ones that had interrupted his murderous rampage. Gamzee had no choice but to stop in his tracks, Tavros growing a bit heavy in his strong arms.

One rider jumped off, handing the reins to Gamzee, and he realized it was the one Pyrope had fired at as he favored one bleeding arm. “Hurry! Follow us!” he said, and Gamzee took the leather strap from his hand as the stranger clambered onto the other chocobo behind his companion.

Gamzee made sure Tavros was somewhat stable in the saddle before seating himself behind him with one hand on the reins and the other around the injured man's waist, and the group was off like feathered lightning.

)O(

Terezi dabbed at the congealed blood on her unconscious comrade's head with a saliva-wettened piece of her shirt. She was acutely aware of the sounds of two people, the other half of their party, approaching.

“What happened? We heard gunshots.” She heard Ampora's voice slightly stumble over the “w”s in his sentences, but registered them only subconsciously.

“We had them. And then two...distractions showed up.” The hand that wasn't smoothing blood from Vriska's face slapped her cheeks gently in an attempt to bring her around.

“Let me guess, they all got away?” Ampora snorted. “Fuckin' typical.”

“Serket shot one of them. They couldn't have gone far.”

“Which one?” The deceptively submissive voice of their other team mate, Zahhak, spoke up.

“Nitram,” Terezi answered. Her efforts were rewarded as her hand brushed against the fluttering eyelashes. “And I shot one of the intruders, but they got away, too.”

“Serket shot Nitram.” Equius' even tone concealed the disapproval in his voice, but it was easy for Terezi to pick it up. “We're supposed to bring them back to Noir alive.”

“It was a misfire,” Vriska said lowly, groaning slightly. “Shit, that guy's got an arm on him. My head fucking aches.”

Terezi backed up and stood, turning to the other two, and Vriska got up to stand beside her, swaying slightly. Vriska gripped Terezi's shoulder tightly to keep herself from falling over. Terezi could tell from the way he breathed through his nose that Eridan's face was scrunched up in condescension, and she raised an eyebrow at him before facing Equius. The larger man's stance remained rigid, as she could feel from the unresponsive earth beneath her.

“So, what do we do now?” Eridan grumbled.

“What else do you think we're going to do? We're going to track them.”

“We might not have to,” Vriska said. “I recognized one of them. He works at the farm nearby. We find the farm, we find Nitram and Makara, I guarantee it.”

)O(

John winced as the wet cloth pressed against his skin, and Karkat retracted it.

“Sorry,” he said. “Did I hurt you?”

John shook his head. “I'm used to it. Chocobos tend to tear me apart,” he laughed. His smile faded somewhat as he saw their new guests, the smaller of the two in a bed while his worried companion slumbered restlessly in the chair beside him. “I doubt they can say the same, though,” he added quietly.

The cloth was back against the wound on his shoulder and he bit the inside of his lip to restrain himself from wincing again. Karkat's hands were gentle on his arm. Luckily, there was no sign of a bullet in the gash; his father had examined the wound and told him that it had merely grazed the muscle. John found it easier not to feel the pain when he thought of the pain the newcomer – Tavros – was probably feeling right now.

His thoughts were distracted as he felt Karkat's lips on his arm, and he peered over to see his boyfriend softly kissing the damaged skin. “I'm sorry,” he heard a small voice whisper. “That bullet was mean for me.”

“It would hurt me more to see you hurt seriously than this hurts me right now,” John assured him. “I'm used to physical pain. Emotional pain, not so much.”

“I know, but...” Karkat's voice faded as he couldn't come up with the rest of his sentence. His hand came up to stroke John's face tenderly. “Dammit, usually this kind of thing pisses me off, and I am pissed off, but...fuck, John, you're like laughing gas or something. I can't act pissed off around you.” His voice was gentle despite the venom he was trying to inject his words with. John chuckled softly.

“I'm kind of glad for that, Karkat. It makes me feel special,” he said.

“You are special,” Karkat answered, removing his hand from John's face to flick his forehead.

A snuffling from the direction of their other guests interrupted anything John might have thought of to say, and he turned to see Gamzee blinking awake. The man looked down at Tavros, checked rage burning behind the concern in his eyes.

“How is he?” John called across the room, and the man's eyes snapped to his.

“I don't motherfucking know,” he said, the bite absent from his words, and he gestured back to John. “What about you?”

“I'll be fine,” John replied.

Gamzee sighed. “I just... I don't up and know what to do in this motherfucking situation,” he sighed. “I didn't think I could let those motherfuckers hurt him, and then they up and did hurt him, and...shit.”

Karkat spoke up. “It'll be okay. He's safe here, Gamzee, don't worry.”

“I gotta thank you motherfuckers, though,” Gamzee said. “If it wasn't for you guys bouncing around distracting those chicitas we'd probably be up and back in their motherfucking evil clutches by now.”

“You don't have to thank us,” John said. His ears picked up the sound of someone coming up on the porch to knock on the door, and was confused at the small feeling of dread filling the base of his stomach.

Confused, that is, until he peered out the window and saw four people there, two of which he recognized.

“They've found us,” he breathed, loudly enough for the other two to hear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp.  
> Cliffhanger.  
> Next chapter's gonna be back at Edge.
> 
> Sorry. imnotsorryxD


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dirk and Roxy get drunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \--EDIT-- WHOOPS WHOA SHIT I forgot to post chapter 5... ._. sorry, guys... Here's the right chapter. ^^'

Jake was awakened by the slam of a door and a loud, slurred voice announcing someone's arrival. He immediately turned on his side, doubling up his pillow to press it against his ears. However, when it became apparent that the extra layers of fabric and down wasn't going to help, he sighed and sat up, throwing on a shirt and heading out the bedroom door.

“C'mon, Dick, you promised me we'd drink together next time I showed up!” a woman's voice complained, and even though he couldn't see her yet Jake could tell she was already sauced to the gills.

“Dirk,” the man corrected as Jake plodded down the stairs. “Roxy, it's the morning. I have a business to run, I can't be humoring you until after hours. Besides, it looks like you started without me, anyway.” He saw Jake out of the corner of his eye, and turned to face him. “Jake, Sun told you to stay in bed today. Remember?”

“I acutely recall,” Jake replied. “The thing is, I don't think anyone could stay in bed through the infernal racket going on at all hours of the day.”

“Ooh, is this the new recruit?” A tall woman stumbled over to him to put her arm around his shoulders. “Your name's Jake, isn't it? Dick told me all about you.”

“Dirk,” muttered the current bartender, rolling his eyes behind his shades.

However, Jake was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything but how he wanted to get out of here. “D-did he?” he stammered.

“Oh, you're cute,” the woman – Roxy? - tried to enunciate, though the word “cute” came out more like “cyooooot”. “How 'bout it, Jake? Wanna get a few shots?”

“Roxy.” A teenage girl that Jake hadn't noticed shoved her arm off his shoulders. “Can't you see how much he's wobbling? I hardly think alcohol is a smart thing to let him consume at the moment.” She exchanged glances with Dirk, nodding, and led Jake upstairs. “I'll be right back,” she called over her shoulder, amidst protestation from the older woman.

“Sorry about her,” the girl said as she walked alongside Jake to his room. “She's usually more pleasant when she hasn't spent the previous two hours marinating herself in preparation for more marinating. I'm Rose, by the way.”

“Jake,” he answered. “How do you do?”

Her black-painted lips curled upward into a smile. “A gentleman stands in my presence,” she said. “How did you get in with a terrorist group?”

“Oh, you know about this whole AVALANCHE conglomerate?”

“Of course. Dirk and my sister, Roxy, are the main leaders. Though they still look occasionally to Doctor Valentine for advice. Anyway, I asked you a question?”

“Oh, yes. It seems I was roped into this by a particularly glowy-eyed blonde male and his good friend, the fiery cat-dog with handwriting like an infant. Er, well, paw-writing, I guess would be the appropriate terminology.”

She paused in the middle of the hallway. “Wait. Did Dirk show you his eyes?”

“Er...yes?” Jake faltered. “Why, does he normally not?”

“No, he doesn't,” Rose said in a musing tone. “He must like you.”

He smirked, striking a pose. “I don't blame him for that,” he said pseudo-egotistically.

“No, I mean...he must like you,” she said quietly, then looked up at him. “Well, if the Doctor says you should be in bed today, I'll leave you here. Do you need anything?”

“A small drop of water would be much obliged,” he said hopefully.

She smiled again, adjusting the pink-purple scarf around her neck. “Then I'll be right back with that. Anything else?”

“Nothing I can think of, but thank you very much,” he replied as she walked away briskly.

He must have disregarded how tired he actually was. When he went into the room, being sure not to lock it, the clamor downstairs rose again, but this time his mind refused to register the noise and he fell sound asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

)O(

“No, I am not opening another bottle of absinth. That shit is expensive, and we already had a full bottle in the last four hours.” Dirk's face was resolute, albeit cherry-red, as he stared down the woman in front of him. “'Sides, I don't wanna have to call the cops on us.”

“Oh, come on,” Roxy begged. Her face was even redder than Dirk's and split with a crooked grin. “You can always buy more.”

“It's expensive.”

“I agree with Strider,” said Rose, coming up with barely a sway in her step; she and Dave had taken some alcohol earlier as well, but only to make sure their siblings didn't have the whole bottle to themselves. “No more. There's an injured man sleeping upstairs.”

“What...but...why isn't he down here with the rest of us?” Roxy complained. “He seems so cool.”

“Because he's injured.”

“And doesn't drink, anyway,” Dirk put in. “I gave him a shot of vodka and he almost spat it back out.”

“Vodka's yucky unless you put something it...it it... In it?”

“In it,” Rose confirmed.

“Yeah. Vodka doesn't taste good 'less there's something it in.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “I don't know what's worse, your drinking...hobby or your atrocious grammar.”

“Both,” Roxy said, and snickered.

Rose came around to stand between her sister and Dirk, turning to face the latter. “I need to ask you something. Could you come in the kitchen with me?”

“Sure,” Dirk replied, somewhat perplexed, as she grabbed his wrist and practically dragged him. For a moment, he was worried that Roxy would follow, but then he heard Dave speaking to her in an attempt to distract her.

Rose poured a glass of water and handed it to him. “You're going to need that, otherwise your headache tomorrow will be agonizing,” she informed him.

“Honey, I run a bar. I think I know that.”

“I know. Just reminding you. Anyway, I need to ask you a question, remember?”

Dirk raised an eyebrow, swaying a bit; he wouldn't admit it aloud, but he was actually quite drunk this time. Having Roxy Lalonde as a drinking buddy would do that to anyone, as he'd found out several years ago. “Go on,” he told Rose.

He was regrettably too slow – for once – to prevent her from reaching out and taking his sunglasses; the glow of Mako, while diluted over generations, still pulsated lightly from his irises.

“What are you doing?” he asked, hoping for her sake she was going somewhere with this.

She was. “Did you tell him?”

“Tell who what?”

She furrowed her brow slightly, and a corner of her mouth pulled down in dissatisfaction. “Did you tell Jake about your bloodline?”

Oh. So that was it. “No,” he answered.

“I thought we had all agreed, Dirk. No keeping secrets from members of neo-AVALANCHE. Remember? You have to tell him.”

“And I will,” Dirk assured her. “I haven't exactly had the chance to. I had to wrap up my recruiting speech early because he was about to fall over. I told you this.”

“I wasn't aware of how much information you'd withheld from him,” she said, handing him back his shades. “He told me you showed him your eyes, though. That's more than you do for most people.”

“Momentary lapse in judgment,” Dirk explained.

She snorted. “I'm fairly certain that isn't true, Strider. You find him attractive, don't you?”

Jesus, this kid was sharp. Dirk remained silent, and that was all the answer she needed. She smiled knowingly.

“You should go check on him,” she said. “He was asleep when I came back with his water. You should make sure whether he drank it already or not.”

With that, she skirted him and went back to the main room, leaving Dirk standing in the middle of the kitchen with his sunglasses clenched in his gloved fist.

“God damn,” he muttered, and decided to do as she said.

–

He was still asleep, and the glass of water on the nightstand looked as if it'd been untouched. Dirk stood in the doorway for a moment, debating whether or not to actually come in the room, seeing as there was probably no point. In the end, he decided to enter anyway, turning on the lights to their second-dimmest setting so as not to wake the man. Disregarding the fact that the racket downstairs probably didn't help very much, that is.

Dirk leaned over Jake's sleeping form, checking to make sure the bandages Sun had applied hadn't been knocked askew in his sleep. Then he noticed something; Jake wasn't sleeping peacefully. His brow was furrowed and his lips were parted in a grimace. The blankets were twisted and contorted around his legs in a way that didn't look comfortable. He was lying on his side, halfway on his stomach, and one hand was clenching the sheets in a fist. The other hand wasn't visible. As Dirk watched, Jake jerked violently, flipping over onto his back and groaning audibly.

Was he having a nightmare? Or – 

As if in answer, a tear leaked out from beneath the man's long eyelashes. He was crying? What was he crying for? These thoughts all but left his mind as Jake turned again to curl into a ball on his side, this time facing Dirk, who now felt a little stalker-ish for watching someone sleep.

At least, he did until Jake jumped up and awake, staring around wildly. His eyes tried to focus on Dirk, but were unable to without the glasses that sat beside the glass of water on the nightstand.

“Who's there?” he demanded.

“It's just me, Jake,” Dirk said, holding his hands up defensively.

“Strider?”

“Yeah. Who else?”

Jake visibly relaxed. “Don't scare me like that, you nearly gave me a confounded heart attack.”

“Sorry.” Dirk paused, then asked him, “What were you dreaming about?”

Jake's eyebrows knit together. “I can't remember,” he answered after a moment of thought. “Why?”

“I dunno, it looked like you were having a nightmare.” Dirk shoved his hands in his pockets, stepping toward the door.

“Why do your eyes glow?” Jake asked suddenly, and Dirk froze, turning slowly.

“Seriously? Rose just asked if I'd told you about that. Are you telepathic or something?”

“I have no bloody idea. Just answer the blasted question.”

“You seem a little agitated,” Dirk said, sighing. He came back to sit on the edge of Jake's bed.

“I'm waiting.”

Dirk's sunglasses were still in his hand. He turned them over, eyes sliding over their familiar planes, as he explained.

“You know how you can tell if a person's been infused with Mako by the glow in their eyes?” he began.

“Of course I do. Get to the point.”

He looked up from the shades, into Jake's green eyes. The eyes that had first drawn him to this man; he'd never seen this shade of green in someone's eyes, and he'd seen a lot of people. He thought that they didn't need Mako to appear as if they glowed.

“Sometimes, people like that get married and have families. Sometimes, their children inherit some of the Mako in their bodies. My great-grandfather was one such person, a former ShinRa infantryman.”

Jake was silent for a moment. “Would I know of this ancestor of yours?”

Dirk sighed; this was the harder part. “Everyone does. Dave and I, we're descended from Cloud Strife himself.”

Jake's mouth fell open in disbelief. “Hah. Okay, good joke, Strider, you really one-upped me there.”

“It's not a joke.” Dirk's eyes had fallen back down to stare at his shades. “Dave and I were expected by so many people to be as great as the great hero whose blood we share. We got sick of it, so we changed our name and hid our eyes. Now we're just ordinary people.”

“But...” Jake thought for a moment. “If you're not trying to be as great as Cloud Strife, then why are you running a terrorist organization affiliated to the one he helped lead?”

“Affiliation isn't always synonymous with relation. Dave and I want to be great in our own ways, and not compared to someone who did something however many years ago. Which happened to be saving the world. Compared to that, no one can be great.”

“Only if you think of it in those terms,” Jake assured him. “If you saved one city, it wouldn't be as great as saving the whole world, but no one wouldn't call that great, am I right?”

Dirk looked up at him again, face softening into a smile. “Thanks, Jake. You're the first person who's said it like that.” He got up. “I should let you get some sleep,” he continued.

“Oh, come on!” Jake protested, untwisting the covers from around his legs. “I've been asleep for hours! I don't need any more blasted sleep.”

Dirk cocked an eyebrow, amused. “Well, I don't know if you should come downstairs. Roxy's getting pretty rowdy.”

His face turned into one of slight distaste. “Will she flirt with me? I can't abide drunken flirting from strange women.”

Dirk laughed. “Probably. Though we could go down hand-in-hand to throw her off.” He meant it as a joke...halfway, anyway.

“Works for me,” Jake chuckled, and, after slipping his glasses onto his face, bounced over to Dirk, who wasn't sure he'd heard right. His hand clasped Dirk's gloved one, and the taller man turned a brighter red than the drunken flush he was formerly sporting.

Roxy was definitely disappointed when they entered the main room with their hands entwined, however, so Dirk endured it.

Ironically.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like writing about people getting drunk. OwO


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a lot is going on at once and yet it's all the same thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I forgot to upload the preceding chapter to this first!! I just fixed it now, though. ^^

_What do I do?_

Jade's eyes were blurry and sticky with tears as the army and their prisoners left her, alone, with no one but Bec thumping his tail against her hip. Their father was gone, having taken his own chocobo to visit the mountains for a few hours. He had been gone when John and Karkat had brought those other two home with them, though they obviously hadn't passed on the way.

 _What do I do?_ she wondered again, absently stroking Bec's ear. Obviously crying wasn't going to solve anything. Her brother and her friend were getting farther away with every moment she did nothing. But, though John's expression had been one of assurance as he was hauled away with his hands cuffed behind him, she had seen the fear there.

She hated them. That stupid wanna-be army. All they were, were a bunch of tyrants and bloodthirsty murderers, masquerading as soldiers. She hated them. No wonder Gamzee had tried to get Tavros away from them.

With a start, she realized what she could do: ask for help. She fumbled for the phone in her apron pocket.

Jade's fingers were trembling as they pressed the buttons on her phone, and she had to start over several times before she actually clicked the right contact name. She put the phone to her ear to hear the low hum of a ringing phone, and took a deep breath to calm herself. She was soon to find out that deep breath wasn't going to work.

The humming of the ringing phone abruptly ceased. “Yo, Harley, 'sup?” Dave's voice greeted her.

He was silent for a moment as Jade burst into loud, hiccuping tears. She was unable to form a coherent word, let alone an actual sentence. Dave spoke again.

“Jade, calm down. Take deep breaths, okay?” His voice had lost its “coolkid” tone and taken on a more firm, comforting tone. “Breathe. Don't try to say anything until you've calmed down enough to talk. Can you do that? I'm going to assume you're nodding in agreement now,” he added.

Jade realized she actually was unconsciously nodding, despite the fact that he'd be unable to see her through the phone. “How-how did you kn-know?” she said shakily, momentarily distracted.

“Just a guess. Think you can tell me what's wrong now?”

She nodded again, then mentally facepalmed. “It-it's John and Karkat,” she began.

)O(

Jake was only just waking up as a light knock sounded at the door. It was a few days after Roxy and Rose had arrived, and – though he didn't know it yet – also the day after John and Karkat had been taken hostage.

“Are you decent?” Dirk's low voice filtered through the wood of the door.

“It depends on what you mean by 'decent', chum,” Jake chuckled. “But, yes, I believe that you would find me quite decent. Come in.”

“Smart-ass.” The doorknob turned, and the now-familiar shades poked their way in the room preceding the face they were constantly situated on. “You might want to put on some outdoor clothes,” Dirk said with his head through the gap between the door and its frame. “That is, if you're feeling up to starting your first mission.”

“Oh,” Jake hummed, and his feet swung over the edge of the bed to come into contact with the smooth hardwood floor. “What is this mission, pray tell?” he asked, pulling the jeans he'd left on the floor over his skull-printed boxers.

Dirk came inside, leaving the door slightly ajar. “Seagulls,” he said, and though the word was obviously not meant to be cryptic in daily conversation, the use of it brought one of Jake's slightly-bushy eyebrows to arch over his eye.

“Seagulls? What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It's a code word. We wanted to use a kind of bird, to symbolize freedom, and the fact that birds are constantly being caught by humans made us want to use it as a code for someone taken captive. Dave wanted to use crows. Said they were more badass. But, well,” and a tiny, smug smile came to his lips, “he isn't the leader.”

“I see,” Jake said, pulling on his jacket over his shirt. Then he paused. “Why not chocobos?”

“Since when do flightless birds represent freedom?” Dirk replied.

Jake nodded as he slipped the belt of his holster around his right thigh and tightened it. “So...we're going to uncage a few of these 'seagulls'?”

Dirk's smirk became a full-on grin while retaining some of its snugness. “You've got it, rookie.”

)O(

John was scared.

He'd never been held behind a locked door before, especially one made of metal with a blinking green light where the doorknob would be. His shoulder was smarting enough to make him tear up, but he set his jaw and pretended not to care, just in case there were hidden surveillance cameras in this metal box of a cell.

He was going to show these losers he wasn't afraid, even if he trembling enough to cause an earthquake.

They'd separated him and Tavros from Karkat and Gamzee. He could still see Karkat trying to reach for him as they were pulled apart, a frantic look in his eyes.

“Don't you dare get hurt!” he'd growled when they pushed him unmercifully from John. “Don't you dare fucking get hurt, or I'm not fucking forgiving you!”

John closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the cold metal wall of the cell, Karkat's voice still echoing in his mind. “I won't,” he promised his absent love. “I won't, and you'd better not, either.”

He was distracted by a low groan, and he looked over to the bunk on the side of the wall, where they'd put his cellmate, Tavros. He looked over at the injured man, unable to do much but stare.

“Gam...Gamzee?” he heard Tavros whisper, and the sound was so pathetic it made John sit a bit straighter. If nothing else, he was going to be strong for this man. He stood and went to Tavros' side.

“He's not here,” he said gently. “He told me to take care of you.” He patted the man's arm softly.

“Wh-where is he?” Tavros said weakly. “Where are we? We...we didn't get c-caught, did we?”

“Yes,” John said hesitantly. “We did.”

“Oh,” Tavros said, and went quiet. After a moment, John realized he must have passed out again. He went around the side of the bunk and leaned back against the wall again. Thoughts of Karkat flooded his mind again, and he realized there was a thin trail of moisture running down his cheek.

But for the moment, he didn't care.

)O(

Dirk watched as Jake's hand ran over the thick, white fabric he'd just been given. “What in the name of...”

“Put it on,” Dirk said simply, pulling a red beanie over his friend's eyes. “We're going undercover.” Another smirk was firmly in place as he slipped on his own ill-gotten disguise.

The two were beneath the former metropolis, in the sewers that came out in the train graveyard somewhere in the slums. Dirk had paused to shrug the backpack from his shoulders, having remained tight-lipped about the contents of said backpack whenever Jake had spoken up about it. Now, as the two stood, they looked like agents of the WRO – quite intentionally.

“Won't they recognize you?” Jake asked, gesturing at Dirk's signature pointy shades. “I mean, if you take those confounded things off, anyone's going to know who you are by the glow.”

“Got that covered,” Dirk explained, and with a nonchalant flick of his fingers, his sunglasses were suddenly in his hands, replaced by a pair of tinted goggles that concealed the glow of Mako well. “I'm an air force technician, temporarily assigned to help you transport the prisoners to the interrogation room. This stuff isn't hard to figure out, you know.”

“I see,” Jake mused. The two of them began moving again, small conversation being made as Jake tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

“So. Midgar was destroyed many years ago, and has since become a ghost town on the outskirts of which a smaller city was built, correct?”

“Yup. But everyone knows that.”

“Then,” Jake paused, his bespectacled eyes roaming over the lichen-encrusted walls of the sewers. “Then why are we going on an espionage trip in the middle of said ghost town?”

“Because recently, the WRO decided to rebuild the ShinRa building to use it as headquarters,” Dirk explained. “Mainly because the cells in that building are impenetrable and hard to replicate, and the closest approximation is on the other side of the continent.”

Jake whistled. “Hmm.” Dirk glanced behind himself as Jake fell silent, noticing the pale red dusting on the younger man's cheeks. Oh, boy. He knew what was coming.

“So, about the other night...”

Dirk sighed, turning to face his companion. “Look, Jake, I'm sorry I hit on you the other night. Blame me, blame the alcohol, I don't care. The point is, we shouldn't be talking about this. We have some seagulls to uncage. Can we just focus on that and leave sorting out the romantic shit for afterward?”

It was only as the last echoes of his voice faded into the semi-permeable stone walls that Dirk realized he'd been talking loudly, just under a shout. Jake was frozen still, his eyes wide behind his glasses and mouth slightly open; Dirk's eyes lingered on the prominent teeth that protruded just barely over Jake's bottom lip, then he closed his eyes and sighed.

“I'm sorry, Jake,” he said, pushing the goggles up somewhat to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I tend to get a little uneasy and snap at people before a mission.”

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and opened his eyes to see Jake smiling at him. “There's no need to apologize, Strider. I completely understand. Besides, it appears to be my fault for touching on a sore subject. Shall we continue this quest of sorts, now?”

Dirk nodded wordlessly and readjusted the goggles to cover his eyes once more, leading the way again down the decrepit, long-unused sewage tunnel.

 _My God, Dirk fucking Strider,_ he thought as his gloved hand brushed the rung of a ladder leading to the surface. He swung himself up the ladder and heard Jake following him in their ascent. _You just met the guy, what the fuck are you doing getting a schoolgirl crush on him?!_

)O(

Karkat was cool and collected. That is, he was only that because the only basis for comparison at the moment was his rampaging cellmate. Gamzee just couldn't cool the seething rage within him, which was apparent in the vigor of his pacing.

“Dude, just calm the fuck down,” Karkat sighed. “You're not solving anything just storming around kicking the walls. Tavros will be okay, he's got John with him.” He, of course, swallowed the fear that they'd hurt John somehow. There needed to be one sane person here, at least, and considering Gamzee wasn't trying very hard he figured it'd have to be him.

“How would you motherfucking know?” Gamzee growled. “For all we motherfuckers know they locked 'em both up in separate fucking cells, and my Tavbro's dyin' all by his motherfucking self...”

What had started as an angry rant ended in a small hiccup and a sob, and Karkat looked up from his reclined position on the single bunk to see the lanky man sink to his knees and start sobbing brokenly. Dumbfounded, Karkat got up from the slab of what was supposed to be a bed and sat beside Gamzee, putting a hand gingerly on his back.

“Gamzee.”

The man looked up at the adolescent, his eyes brimming with tears that had not yet fallen. “I...I don't think I could motherfucking take it if...if he...”

Karkat rubbed his hand in small circles on Gamzee's back sympathetically. “You asked how I know they're together?” he said softly. “Because we are. They'd want to keep tabs on all of us, and that's easier in fewer cells. They wouldn't put all of us in one cell that was built for one person, but they didn't want to take up four cells in one raid, or...whatever this was.

“Tavros will be all right. They separated you two because of your connection, right? But John's with him. He'll take care of him, Gamzee.”

Karkat wasn't sure why he'd said all that. He normally wasn't this kindhearted to anyone, especially someone he'd known for such a short while; John was pretty much the exception to that. But it seemed to help; Gamzee's hand lifted to wipe away the tears that had started to fall.

“Thanks, brother,” he said, and Karkat sensed a little hope enter that shaky voice. “You really have a motherfucking way with words when you ain't cooing at your boyfriend or swearin' like a motherfucking sailor.”

“Look who's talking, you've said more 'fuck' words in one sentence than I have this entire conversation.”

Gamzee laughed slightly. “Ain't that a fact.” He got up and Karkat went back to sit lazily on the edge of the bed. Gamzee stared around the room. “Well, how are we getting the motherfuck outta here?”

“I doubt that's gonna happen,” Karkat said. “We'll just have to wait and see what happens.” He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, releasing a deep, slow breath, and smiled halfheartedly. “We could always hope neo-AVALANCHE heard of our plight or something and decided to come to our rescue, but that's doubtful.”

As if to accentuate the last part of his sentence, the sound of footsteps approached and the two were immediately on edge, both with their eyes one the door, as there was a small “ping” and it came open.

Two WRO agents, their red headgear giving them away, stood menacingly in the doorway.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which...um...hacking and infiltration. That's the bulk of it.

The only light in the room came from the red, yellow, and blue of the computer tower. The monitor, onto which yellow characters flashed with the speed only sound could register, was only dwarfed in size to the massive mainframe it was connected to.

This setup was built from years of experience in hacking into practically every computer or piece of technology on the planet, as well as years of solitude only recently broken into by some approximation of a social life. It was his only solace.

His fingers flitted across the keyboard like the swarming of angry bees, accentuated by the low buzz caused by the rapidity of his typing. He heard Roxy giggling through the headset attached to his ear, and rolled his eyes, though his typing didn't slow down for an instant.

“Lalonde, please tell me you aren't drunk,” he begged, trying to force his tongue to comply and not stumble over forming an “s” sound. He failed.

“But that would mean lying to you,” she giggled.

“Lalonde – ”

“I'm joking, 'Thollukth',” she said, her voice becoming slightly firmer and less...well, drunk. “You really think I'd get drunk during a life-or-death mission that people need my help on? Get _real_.” She broke off to hiccup. “I'm just buzzed. Oh...no pun intended.” She started laughing again.

Sollux rolled his eyes again. “Good.” He went back to paying attention to his computer monitor. He was rewarded moments later by the sight of the screen dividing into the view of several dozen surveillance cameras. He allowed himself a smirk. “Okay, looks like we're in.”

“That's a lot of cameras,” she whistled; their monitors were linked, even over the distance of half a city, so anything on his screen she could see, and vice versa. “What did Dirk say we're looking for?”

“We're making sure both groups reach their designated points, so we can let them know when to get shit started,” he replied, somewhat impatiently. “We should probably use our code names from here on out, by the way. Kitty.”

She giggled yet again. “Okay, _Honey_ ,” she said, and he didn't know whether the way she said it wanted to make him cringe or blush. So he did a little of both.

“Stop saying it like it's a pet name,” he grimaced.

“What makes you think it's not?”

It was a good thing all she could see of him was his computer screen. “Would you just shut up and pay attention?” He resisted the urge to call her “Kitty” in a similarly coddling tone; she'd probably enjoy it too much. “Muscles and...the other guy have reached their checkpoint,” he added, noticing this on the screen “Keep an eye out for Shades and Thesaurus.”

“The other guy,” Roxy hummed. “He doesn't have a code name yet?”

“If he does, they didn't tell me what it is,” he answered. “We'll deal with that later. Anyway, keep your eyes on where the other two have to be. I'll keep my eyes on the birdies.” His gaze slid to the view of the surveillance cameras overlooking the cells. Good; the WRO had put the four they were after in two different cells rather than separate them all. That would make it much easier.

And that was definitely the Tuesti kid. Sollux found himself grimacing in pity as he watched; the man had been hurt somehow, and was now lying unconscious in the single bed in the cell. It was a good thing they had the Egbert kid keeping an eye on him; John would probably take better care of him than Makara or Highwind in the other cell.

There was a silence for a few moments as the two watched their respective cameras, and Sollux decided to break it with one more question.

“Our first infiltration, Kitty. You think we can handle it?”

He heard laughter again from the other end. “Of course we can, or my name isn't...what we just decided not to say it was for a few hours. But if I were to say it, you can bet there's be a 'fucking' in the middle.” She paused for a moment. “Sorry for the innuendo.”

“I didn't hear an innuendo,” Sollux muttered sarcastically.

“Smart-ass.”

There was another small pause in the conversation, this one broken after its span of two seconds by “Kitty”. “Shades and Thesaurus're where they're supposed to be,” she informed him. “Should we let Muscles know?”

“I will,” he answered; she'd probably drag the conversation longer than it needed to be with her natural flirtation. “Keep your eyes peeled.” He pressed a button on the side of his headset to let Dirk know he could talk.

“Hey, Honey. Are we ready to go?”Dirk's voice inquired casually.

Sollux smirked as he registered the scene on the surveillance camera. The new kid must've been shocked by the use of the code name; his face grew from nervous pixels to aghast pixels.

“Yup. Shades and Thesaurus are ready. Are you and Scruffy, there?” He had no idea why he'd said “Scruffy”. The word just seemed to fit.

“Let's do this, man,” Dirk said. “Let's make this happen.”

)O(

At first, upon the cell door opening to reveal the two agents, John shrank back to the wall, but one glance at the broken man on the bunk drove him to step forward, standing between Tavros and the newcomers.

“Wh-what do you want?” His demand faltered somewhat as the two came inside, one shoving John aside to examine Tavros.

“Yup, this is Nitram,” the agent said as the other wrenched John around, eliciting an unbidden gasp of pain and surprise as she handcuffed him roughly. “Hey, Thesaurus, go tell Muscles to get his lazy ass in here with the stretcher.”

As the female agent – Thesaurus – nodded and exited the room, John stood there with his hands bound behind his back, confused.

Wait.

Thesaurus?

“Rose?” John murmured, peering closer at the agent who'd stayed behind. The other teenager was still leaning over Tavros, but straightened slowly when he heard John speak up. John peered at the agent. “Dave?” he said a little louder.

“What the fuck are you talking about, kid?” The guy turned to face John. An eyebrow was quirked over the tinted goggles he wore, but John could swear it was him. “That ain't my name,” he insisted.

But John could tell it was, in the way Dave spoke – it was obvious, now, that he was trying to disguise his voice – in the way he stood, tense but lazy; and finally, in the way one eye winked at John.

He'd never been more happy to see his friend in his entire life.

)O(

“'Scruffy'?” Jake hissed indignantly as Dirk worked a few thick, hollow tubes and a thick bundle of reddish canvas out of the backpack he still carried. “What the hell kind of name is that?”

“I like it. It fits you, don't you think?” Dirk began to assemble the tubes and canvas into something approximating a collapsible stretcher. “Anyway, we'll dwell on that more when we're off duty. I'll get you a drink to mull over things. Right now, we're busy, remember?”

Jake could see Dirk's hands; they were shaking with anticipation. He chose not to use the word “nervousness”, certain Dirk wouldn't appreciate it. “All right. Is there anything you need me to do?”

“Keep an eye on those two with Thesaurus, make sure they don't escape,” Dirk replied as he went into the other cell to outfit one of the “seagulls” with the stretcher.

Jake nearly laughed. Make sure they don't escape? That was the exact opposite of what they wanted to do. But, realizing that they were deep in enemy territory, he forced himself to keep a straight face as he went to stand by Rose.

He noticed the lanky prisoner was glaring balefully at him; the anger in his eyes was burning with the fires of despair, and it was all Jake could do not to tell him that they weren't here as his enemies. So he just remained silent, subconsciously reaching for the gun in his holster and retracting his hand when he realized it.

“Scruffy.” The firm voice spoke from his right, and he glanced over at Rose, who was looking at him with those lavender eyes. “Your glasses are still broken.”

“Are they? I hadn't realized,” he replied. He really hadn't; it was only the lens in one of the frames, and he'd grown accustomed to it. “Do you think I could get Su – someone to give me a new pair?”

“I'm sure we can get that worked out,” she replied with a quirk to her lips. She unconsciously glanced over to the shorter boy, who was staring at her suspiciously, and looked more fully at him when she realized that he was. “Yes?” she said condescendingly.

“You look familiar,” the boy said, averting his eyes.

“I get that a lot,” she answered. “However, at the present time, I'd prefer if you didn't stare at me so pointedly, I don't want any holes bored into my skull.” She said all this with a tone like ice, and while Jake knew it was all just an act, he felt she was taking it a bit too far. But before he could say anything about it, there was a shout from the other cell.

“Thesaurus. Scruffy. Bring those two in here, we need help with the stretcher.”

“We'll be right there,” Rose answered, and took her position behind the boy, shoving him forward; luckily, the tall one didn't need such coaxing, and began shuffling out the door, the fire in his eyes having died down. The three followed Jake and filed out into the other cell. Rose went to help Dirk and Dave, gently shifting the injured man from the bunk to the stretcher while the brothers held it. The other boy in the room, a scared-looking adolescent, glanced across to the boy Jake and Rose had brought in.

And winked.

 _So he must know,_ Jake thought, turning to peer at the smaller prisoner behind him. A look of understanding had spread across his face, and he glanced at Jake with a small smirk. Jake smiled in return.

–

“The 'stairs that never end'?”

Rose nodded. “They're a flight of stairs, seemingly neverending, that are separate from the building until they get to a certain floor. I keep forgetting what floor that is, but Muscles will know. In the meantime, we're transporting these prisoners to the interrogation room, which is in the same general vicinity.”

“I see.” He knew that whole bit about the interrogation room was a lie; why would they need to go there, after all? He paused for a moment as a slight buzzing became audible from the small ear bud Dirk had given him.

“Scruffy, do you copy?” A hushed voice spoke through the headset at him. He detected the hint of a speech impediment.

“Yes, I copy,” he replied quietly. “Though, I'm having difficulty discerning how you came up with that name. It's slightly perturbing.”

He heard a snigger. “I dunno, either, it just kind of came out. Listen, I have something to tell you that probably won't involve the others, or even you, maybe, but just in case...

“Have you noticed the way Makara's looking at you?”

“'Makara'?” Which of the prisoners was that? He remembered an “Egbert”, a “Highwind”, the “Makara” that his ear bud was telling him about, and a “Nitram”, but he didn't know which was which.

“The tall one. Looks really pissed off right now.” Jake glanced at the prisoner, catching him in the act of another murderous glare. “Keep an eye on him. He doesn't know we're trying to help him, and we can't run the risk of telling him at the moment. Just make sure he doesn't have a way to get at you.” There was a crackling. “Shit, Kitty's trying to talk to me. Over and out, Scruffy. Good luck.”

“Good luck,” he replied, just before the line went dead. He glanced at the Makara fellow again, and met his hate-filled eyes, but this time the soon-to-be-ex-prisoner didn't look away.

“Where's Serket?” he demanded in a growling tone.

“S-sorry?” Serket? What was this guy talking about?

“Vriska Serket. The motherfucking bitch who hurt my Tavbro.”

“I don't recall knowing anyone by that name,” Jake said hesitantly. “You...you care about...your Tavbro, don't you?”

Makara chuckled, but it wasn't in humor. “To say the motherfucking least, yeah,” he said lowly. “And any motherfucker who hurts him ain't gonna up and repeat doing that anytime soon.” His eyes filled with hate, Makara continued. “And I don't just mean motherfucking Serket. I mean anyone who has a fucking intent to so much as look at him the wrong way. Including every motherfucker in this WRO, brother.”

Jake was beginning to feel nervous – well, more nervous than he already had been, given the circumstances – and he glanced toward Dirk, at the front of the group. It looked like they were getting close to where they were going, so Jake decided to try and stall for time. After all, the man's hands were chained behind him; not for any other reason, of course, than to evade suspicion.

However, any attempt he was about to make at stalling was thrown out the window as the vengeful man barreled at him in his distraction, knocking him off his feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, this took longer than I'd hoped! If one of my favorite parts of writing is the drinking scenes, one of my least favorite is technology and/or infiltration.
> 
> (On a side note, the infiltration/sneaky parts of a video game are also my least favorite. >:U I'm better at sneaking in real life.)
> 
> Enter Sollux and some awesome code names!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a lot of running.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH GOD WHY DO I KEEP POSTING THE WRONG CHAPTERS. You'd think AO3's never heard of a prologue. >:U

Gamzee pressed down on who he thought was a member of the WRO, blind hate and rage burning though him. He sank his teeth into every bit of the unfortunate man he could reach. He didn't care that his arms were chained behind him. He paid no heed to the fact that the roar of boiling blood in his head was deafening him to the cries of the agent and those of the people around them trying to separate him from his prey.

All he wanted was vengeance.

However, he wasn't able to get far in his attempt to at least mutilate the man before he was hauled unceremoniously away by the leader of their party and dragged to the front of the group.

“Hey, Scruffy, are you okay back there?” the blonde called back to the one Gamzee had attacked. Gamzee was held firmly as he struggled to get at him – or, well, anyone who got in his way.

It was a moment before “Scruffy” answered in a hesitant tone. “I'm all right.”

Gamzee continued to struggle against the man's strong grip, until he felt something kick the inside of his knee. He stumbled and glared behind him at Karkat.

“You idiot, you're gonna get us all punished for that,” the kid growled. But there was something in his tone and behind his eyes that Gamzee nearly missed.

Was that... hope? But why would it be hope?

In his confusion, Gamzee's flailing faltered, and he became somewhat limp in the agent's grasp.

“You gonna behave, bro?”

Gamzee could hardly believe the almost-friendly tone he'd just heard; considering the prisoner had just attacked this guy's teammate, he would have figured the man to be more angry at him. Dumbly, he nodded, and was released.

“What the motherfuck is going on?” he hissed to Karkat, but the other shook his head and remained silent as they were herded forward. Only, Gamzee began to wonder if “herded” was the right word.

A large number fifty-nine was painted on the wall.

)O(

Dirk was worried. Jake looked more shaken-up than he ought to have been; even considering the fact he'd just been unfairly attacked. Luckily Dirk had pulled Makara off him before he'd caused more damage than a few bite marks and further destruction of an already-broken pair of glasses. Though Dirk was a little more than hesitant about going back to ask the guy what was wrong, taking into account the hurry they were in.

That brought his train of thought to his other main cause for concern. As “Honey” had already warned him, their way to the outer staircase – their only way out, unless they wanted to wade through dozens of actual WRO agents on their rather conspicuous way out the door – was barricaded by two guards. Easily handled, but still Dirk's palms began to sweat nervously. Why was he so anxious?

Why did he have the feeling that something was going to go wrong?

Well, he didn't have long to figure out. As expected, the group was accosted upon approaching the two guards.

“Where are you headed?” one asked, obviously thinking the group was lost.

“Right down that staircase,” Dirk replied, putting on an airy tone. He was good at putting on a mask to temporarily hide his emotions. In another life, he might have been an actor.

...Nah. Acting seemed a little too lame for someone like Dirk Strider.

“But...these stairs lead right out of the building,” the other said, confused. “You've got prisoners with you.”

“Yeah, that's kind of the point,” Dirk said with a smirk. He balled up his fist and drove it into the guard's face. The other guard stared for a moment before doing exactly what Dirk didn't want her to do.

“Intruders!” she said into her headset. “They're disguised as WRO agents! They have the priso – ”

That was all she was able to get out before Dirk's other fist propelled up into her jaw, knocking her out cold beside her companion on the floor.

“Shit,” he heard Dave hiss behind him. “That ain't good.”

“Nope. Time to stride,” Dirk stated flatly, and pushed open the door.

–

They unlocked the former prisoners' shackles in their hurry down the seeming thousands of steps at the bottom, and as soon as Gamzee's hands were freed, he went to Tavros' side, on the stretcher held between Rose and Dave.

“Let me carry him,” he told them. “It'll be a lot motherfucking faster.”

“He's hurt badly,” Rose warned him.

“Think I don't motherfucking know that? He'll just be hurt a lot more if the motherfuckers up and catch us 'cause we weren't fast enough.”

“He's got a point,” Dirk told her. “Jake and I'll stay back in case they come from behind us. Just leave the stretcher here, might trip up some of our friends back there.”

Rose turned to Dave, who nodded, and they both slowed down, stopping so Gamzee could take Tavros into his arms and carry him bridal-style. The wounded man groaned slightly as he was moved.

With that, the group was off again, catching up to John and Karkat, who had gone ahead.

It was a few flights later when Jake spoke up behind Dirk.

“She..wasn't joking...about these stairs...being never...ending,” he panted.

“No...kidding,” Dirk replied. “Shut up...and keep run...ning.”

“Hey, leader...guy!” Egbert called from ahead, exertion causing him to speak similarly to Jake.. “What if...they're at the...exit?”

“We've got that covered.” Dirk was almost jealous that his younger brother seemed to be able to pant less than the rest of them, but then, maybe he was just good at talking while running. “Just keep going a few more flights down, we'll stop you.”

)O(

There weren't any surveillance cameras on that particular staircase, which made it the perfect escape route. However, it also made it nearly impossible for Roxy or Sollux to keep an eye on them. And that was making Roxy slightly anxious. She was scanning the surveillance feeds over and over again to see if there actually was a camera there, but there were none. She sighed in exasperation.

“Calm down, Kitty,” Sollux said through the headset. “We're not solving anything getting frustrated.”

“Why didn't we plant any cameras there?” she retorted. Her buzz was wearing off and that was making her even more agitated.

“We couldn't run the risk,” he answered calmly. “Look, take some ibuprofen and a nap and let me handle the rest, okay?”

“Fat chance of that, Honey,” she growled.

She heard Sollux let out a sigh of his own. “Look, just keep an eye on the camera by the entrance, okay? I'll watch the one by the staircase's door.”

There was a pause as he did just that, and she frowned as she complied. There were a lot of agents filing out of those big glass doors, she noted.

“Oh, shit,” she heard Sollux breathe as he watched his camera, and she glanced at his to see what he was cursing about. She sucked in a breath unconsciously as she saw.

“Dirk, get out of there,” she said urgently into the headset.

The espionage team were about to get overrun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY I KEEP POSTING THE WRONG CHAPTERS, GUYS. I REALLY AM. On that note, might wanna check chapter 4. It's been edited. Very importantly.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which THESE ARE THE STAIRS THAT NEVER END, THEY JUST GO ON AND ON MY FRIENDS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, you should go check the previous chapter, because I uploaded the wrong one (sorry again!! ;A;), and you should also check chapter 4 'cause I redid it. Enjoy before I post chapter-next-one-that's-supposed-to-be-10-but-AO3-thinks-is-11!!!

“Shit,” Jake heard Dirk exhale. “Jake, get...ready. They're...coming out in...force.”

“What do you...mean, 'get ready'? How...in blazes am...I supposed to do...that?”

“Just...trust me.” Dirk turned his head slightly so Jake could see the grin shot his way. “Get in front...with Dave.”

“So much for those...blasted...code names,” he who was formerly Scruffy hissed under his breath as he sped up to pass ex-Muscles. “What are we...doing?” he asked the adolescent as he approached.

“There should be a massive hole in the wall where the building collapsed,” Dave replied, his voice somehow concealing any sign of fatigue. “Rox and Sollux had a quick recon here the other day to see if it could be used as an escape route in cases like this. Well, guess what they found?”

“An...escape route?”

“No, a truck full of pink coconut cakes.” Dave rolled his eyes. “Jesus, what part of the Lifestream did you materialize from?”

They were interrupted as gunfire sounded behind them, and the two exchanged glances; one nervous as hell, the other eternally poker-faced.

“No time to talk now, rookie,” Dave said. “Time to go.”

Jake nodded, and they sped up, the group behind them reacting in kind. Before long, a whoosh of wind sounded from somewhere beneath them; a few flights down, the source of the noise became clear. As Dave had described it, it was a massive hole in he wall. From what Jake could see through the new cracks in his glasses, the cave-in had been caused due to a large amount of debris from surrounding parts of the building. Dave led them toward it hurriedly.

“I'll help them out,” he told Jake. “You go back and help Bro; I think he got hurt.”

Jake nodded as Dave crawled out onto the approximation of a staircase of cement and scrap metal and helped Rose out behind him. Jake backtracked to Dirk, who, confirming Dave's assumption, was limping conspicuously.

The gunfire above them ceased for a bit; they were far enough away that the agents could obviously tell shooting wouldn't do much good. Jake went to his leader's side, offering a shoulder for him to lean on. “What happened?”

“They shot me,” he grimaced with a tone of “well, duh”. “Go help out the others.”

Jake shook his head. “I'm a little tired of going back and forth, Strider. Besides, your brother has it covered. I'm sure they would rather I help you than get in their way.”

“Whatever,” Dirk said, giving up the miniature argument. He braced himself with an arm around Jake's shoulders, while one of Jake's arms went around the other's waist. Above them, the sound of the chase got closer. Jake felt Dirk's hand on his shoulder tighten, and sped up to reach the hole faster, careful of Dirk's injured leg. Two pairs of hands, Dave's and Karkat's, aided the two out into the night air.

“Nice time to forget the materia, huh?” Dirk joked to his brother, who smirked.

“Nice time to forget your all-powerful flash-step skills,” he replied in a smart-alecky tone, for which he got a playful punch in the shoulder.

There was a manhole near the base of the rubble that Rose was standing beside; Makara, Nitram, and John were nowhere to be seen, so Jake assumed they'd gone ahead. His suspicions were confirmed; as he handed Dirk to his brother, who stood behind them now, and jumped down, John's hand was outstretched in case Jake needed the assistance. He didn't, and as his feet touched the ground, the two of them aided Dirk into the tunnel. Rose was the last one in, somehow closing the manhole cover behind her upon her descent.

After a few yards down the dank tunnel, Jake detected that Dirk was more badly hurt than he'd previously let on. His breathing became slightly ragged, and his grip on Jake's shoulder weakened. Though, he was obviously coherent enough to notice when Jake stopped.

“What are you doing?” he murmured, confused.

“Getting you into a more comfortable position. You seem to be dropping off.” He maneuvered the man so he was leaning against his back rather than his side, crouching slightly to more easily move his arms under Dirk's legs. He hefted him up again, and felt his head rest against the collar of Jake's jacket. Dirk's arms, which had been somewhat limp up until now, tightened slightly around Jake's shoulders and neck.

“Thanks.”

Jake wasn't sure if he'd heard that or just imagined it, but he decided to reply anyway. “No need to thank me, you great dunce. Just don't be so slow next time.”

–

“Hurry up. You're the last ones.” The back door of the bar was held open by an unfamiliar man with a familiar lisp, and Jake recognized the voice as the one that had spoken to him through the headset. He nodded and entered swiftly, and the man closed the door behind him and led him up to the rooms.

Dirk felt like dead weight on his back, and if he hasn't heard the steady breathing against his ear of someone long since fallen unconscious, he would have feared the worst. Luckily, Dirk didn't seem to be badly hurt; he had lost a fair bit of blood, but from what Jake could tell, that was probably the extent of it.

Though, if it was treatment he needed, he was out of luck for the moment. The doctor was busy taking care of the still-unconscious Tavros, he discerned as he laid Dirk on his bed carefully, and he went to see what was going on.

“Shit,” Sun was saying as Jake entered the surprisingly unpacked room; he guessed the others had probably gone to their own rooms or down to the bar below, because the only ones in here were himself, the doctor, Makara, and Nitram.

The woman turned to look up at Gamzee, who was hovering worriedly over the two. “I've got good news and bad news,” she told him. “The good news is, once I get the right materia, I can take care of your friend; he's going to live.” Her crystal green eyes flicked to acknowledge Jake as he approached, nodding slightly, then rose to retrieve said materia. “You two keep an eye on him while I go do that.”

“Wait, what's the motherfucking bad news?” Gamzee practically begged.

She paused on her way out the door, and turned back somewhat to look him in the eyes as she spoke.

“Makara, there are some things that materia can't fix,” she began. “He's paralyzed from the waist down. He'll probably never walk again.” She stood a moment, gauging his reaction and ready to provide condolences if necessary.

His eyes went wide for an instant, and he took a shaky breath. Then he smiled. “Well, my main motherfucker's gonna live,” he said. “Ain't no never-fucking-mind to me what he can't do. 'Sides, miracles is what got him here alive, and luck willin', he can walk again if I help him do that.”

She smiled back. “Horrendous profanities aside,” she said, “that's the best kind of viewpoint to have on this. He's lucky to have a good friend like you taking care of him.” She turned back to the door, saying, “I'll be right back,” as she exited.

Gamzee sat then, taking his unconscious friend's hand as he spoke again. “I guess a motherfucking apology's in order, 'm I right?”

It took Jake a moment to realize the man was talking to him. “...What for?”

“Brother, I up and motherfuckin' tried to kill you, just 'cause you're wearing the WRO getup,” Gamzee said.

“Oh...that. I don't mind, honestly,” Jake answered. “I could kind of understand why you reacted like that. It's fine...really.”

“If you say so,” Gamzee said. His eyes hadn't once lifted from Tavros' face. “Don't you have a banged-up motherfucker of your own waitin' for you, though?”

“A...what?”

Gamzee laughed. Now that he knew Tavros was going to be at least halfway okay, his mood had lightened somewhat, especially toward the people that had rescued them. “That Strider motherfucker. I seen the way he looks at you. He got his motherfucking self hurt bad, too, didn't he?”

“Oh, yes,” Jake replied. “I suppose I ought to go and check on him. I just felt I should see how your friend here is doing.” _Wait, the way he looks at me?_ he thought to himself as he exited, passing Sun on the way. She patted his shoulder with a crooked grin, a glowing green-blue sphere in her hand. _No...I'm sure Makara is merely mistaken._

“You know some first-aid, right?” Sun asked him.

“Of course I do. Why?”

“Just checked on D. Pale as tissue paper from all that blood loss.” She chuckled. “A bullet grazed his leg, like, the outside of his calf, and another one got his side pretty good. All he needs is bandaging, but I kind of have to help Tavros first; his case is more of an emergency.” She winked at Jake. “Think you can handle it?”

“Sure,” he answered. “Where might I find the bandages?”

“I keep a few in every nightstand in this house, just in case,” she said, hurrying into Gamzee and Tavros' room. “Top drawer. There should be some peroxide in there, too. Thanks!”

“No problem,” he said as she shut the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whee~ another appearance by my OC, Sun. (I pretty much based her off me, only she's more badass than I'll ever hope to be. ;u;) But anyway, I'm working on the next chapter right now, and there's gonna be fluff, so hang on tight! <3


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is kissing, smoking, and Terezi.

There were hands on his skin, and they were warm. They had carefully removed the armor of the uniform he was wearing, and now they were slowly pulling up the fabric of his shirt, brushing against the raw skin around his bullet wound. He involuntarily let out a hiss at that, and the hands paused. He could sense concerned eyes gazing at his face, and he reluctantly opened his own eyes, finding Jake's a little closer than he'd expected.

It wasn't as if he was going to complain about that, though.

“Did I hurt you?” Jake asked, and Dirk shook his head.

“No. Well, I mean, yeah, but no.” Damn it, why was he so light-headed and dizzy? He could barely form a coherent thought apart from Jake's warm hands hovering mere millimeters above his skin.

Jake chuckled. “You're not making any sense, Strider. Try not to move so much. Sun asked me to do this for her.”

“For her or for me?” Dirk speculated. He hadn't meant it to come out of his mouth.

“Both, I guess,” Jake said after a pause, and resumed lifting Dirk's shirt to be able to reach the wound. His fingers motioned around it, seeming to want to carefully touch the deep gash but hesitating to. In the end he just settled for reaching into the nightstand to pull out a bottle, some cotton balls, and a thick roll of bandage. Dirk eyed the bottle suspiciously. He knew what was coming.

“Keep that fucking liquid away from me, I'm not that badly hurt,” he said fiercely as Jake pressed a cotton ball to the open bottle and tipped it slightly.

“Sun told me to,” Jake reminded him. He was seated on the mattress next to Dirk, considering the lack of a chair in the room. “Just hold still.”

“Nah.” Dirk squirmed half-heartedly away, and was stopped by the cool paint of the wall. “Shit.”

“Is the great Dirk Strider afraid of a harmless liquid?” Jake said in a coddling tone.

“Hydrogen peroxide is far from 'harmless', rookie,” Dirk retorted, somewhat fiercer than before. “Oh, it feels good on small lacerations, but dude, slathering that shit on something as deep as this won't feel – ” He broke off, gasping in pain, as the cotton ball suddenly pressed down on the gash.

“Sorry,” Jake said, not sounding sorry at all. “I didn't mean to harm you, I was merely attempting to shut you up. You can get rather ranty when you want to be.”

“I'm. Going. To. Murder. You,” Dirk growled through grit teeth. “You know there are much less painful ways to shut someone up, right?”

“Like...?” Jake said, dabbing lightly at the wound before he got a new cotton ball and retrieved a pad of gauze from the drawer.

In his momentary lapse in concentration, Dirk grabbed the front of Jake's shirt.

“Like this,” he hissed, glaring, and pulled the other man toward him to mash their lips together.

He felt Jake's lips resisting at first, but all he did was kiss deeper and he was finally rewarded with the feeling of the other's mouth moving with his. It felt like an eternity had passed before they pulled apart, mainly due to the fact that Dirk was in an awkward position that pulled on his injury. His mouth pulled into a halfhearted smirk when he saw the amount of red deepening on Jake's face.

“That was only about as cheesy as the products of half a million dairy farms, Strider,” he finally said, though the snarky remark did nothing to fade his blush.

“Don't you know it,” Dirk replied with a small grin. His cheeks burned, and he had a small inkling that he looked pretty similar to Jake at the moment.

After another pause, Jake frowned, dabbed the dry cotton ball on the wound to remove excess peroxide, and wet another cotton ball with his tongue to remove the blood from around it. “All cheese-related tomfoolery aside, you're not getting away with distracting me from this,” he growled.

“Damn, I've been found out,” Strider mocked, sitting up as Jake finished and began wrapping the gash with a length of white bandage. He rolled up the torn and bloody leg of Dirk's pants and began cleaning that wound. This time he moved gently, though, and the extent of Dirk's complaints was a half-repressed hiss of pain as he clenched the sheets of the bed in one fist.

He didn't realize he'd closed his eyes until he felt a hand on his chest, and opened them as he was pushed backward to lie back on the bed. Jake pulled the covers up to just above his waist before he got up and took a step toward the door.

“I'm going to go and see Sun about my glasses,” he said, and Dirk noticed his voice was softer than it had been before. “You should get some rest.”

“And you should get me some food,” Dirk said, to which Jake rolled his eyes.

“I'll see what I can do.” And with that, he was gone, gently closing the door behind him. As if Dirk was already asleep.

Dirk chuckled a bit, then laid back, closing his eyes. His small smile straightened out into a thin line as his hand went over his eyes, blocking out the light that Jake had forgotten to turn off.

_What the fuck did I just do?_

–

“Yes, we got them out. They're okay,” Dave assured the somewhat flustered friend. Apparently, Jade's father had come back and had been trying to console her when Dave had called, because there was a voice asking questions in the near background.

“Oh, thank God,” she replied, taking in a shaky, relieved breath. “What about Tavros, is he going to be okay? He was really badly hurt...”

“We've got the best doctor on the continent on our side, remember?” Dave said with a chuckle. “Though, I think she said he's not gonna be able to walk anymore.”

“Oh, no!” Jade exclaimed, and Dave could hear her father in the background again asking what was wrong.

“Hey, it's okay, Jade. Point is, other than that he's gonna be perfectly okay.”

“But...that's just so terrible!” she said, sniffling.

Oh, jeez.

“Look, it's okay. His friend's gonna take care of him. Okay? Think you can stop crying now?”

She sniffed again, once, and took a deep breath. “I think I'm all right now,” she said.

“Good, 'cause if you go all teary on me I don't think I can help with that.”

“You have every single time, though!” she answered with a small giggle.

“I didn't think it'd actually worked,” he replied. “Well, I was just calling to let you know, okay? I gotta go check on Bro now.”

“Wait, did Dirk get hurt, too?”

“Not badly, just a couple minor shotgun cuts or some shit. He's fine, too.”

“Okay,” she sighed. “Well, I should probably go now, too. I have to get up early tomorrow so I can get all my chores done. Gosh, it's harder without an extra hand to help you out!”

“I'll call you tomorrow,” he promised, and hung up the phone.

God, was he lucky to have a sweet girl like her as a friend. And not “sweet” as in “sweet, dude”. More like “sweet” as in “the nicest girl any cool kid could have the privilege to meet”.

Rather than go upstairs to check on his brother, though, Dave went out the back door and leaned against the wall, pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. It had been a long day. But before he could light one up, a shadow descended in front of him and plucked the small box from his unsuspecting fingers.

“Sun, what the fuck,” he growled, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he spotted the clean white of her wing and the green glow to her eyes; stronger than the faint red glow from his.

“I've told you about lighting up next to the building, Dave,” she reprimanded him, but she still had that ridiculous crooked grin plastered on her face. “I may be your great-aunt, but that doesn't mean I show leniency. I don't want the place smelling like tobacco. Plus, these are bad for you.”

“Adopted great-aunt,” he reminded her, swiping for his cigarettes, but she merely held them aloft, out of his reach.

Damn. And she wasn't even flying. Man, did he hope he'd get that belated growth spurt soon.

“You know I'm not addicted so much I need a smoke every two hours. It's been two days, remember?” Indeed, he only smoked when he was stressed or had gone more than a week without one. In this case, obviously, it was the former.

She chuckled and handed the pack to him. “Further away from the bar, please,” she reminded him, and swooped back into the air, landing on the roof of the building to stand there like a sentinel.

He rolled his eyes and backed farther away, against the wall next to the dumpster across the alley. He clicked open his lighter and ran the tip of his cancer-stick in the small flame, giving the butt a couple of good puffs before snapping the lighter shut to extinguish it.

He leaned casually against the wall, having long since shed his stolen WRO uniform for something infinitely more comfortable. It was just a plain T-shirt with a record design silk-screened onto it; a light, worn hoodie; and a pair of jeans. He wasn't wearing eye wear, either; considering it was night time, no one around to see him anyway, the sunglasses he usually wore were hanging from the collar of his shirt.

Sometimes he got really sick of wearing a mask. Not just the sunglasses, but even the face he wore around other people was there to show that he had no emotion to give.

Only, he did. And that was the infuriating part of it.

That was why he cared so much for Jade; somehow, she was the only one apart from himself who was able to break that mask. And she was the only one he voluntarily broke it for. One of these days, he was just going to ask her out. But he was torn between her and the effort he was putting into neo-AVALANCHE.

He sighed, releasing a breath of cloudy smoke from his probably blackened lungs into the warm late-spring air, then he snuffed out the remaining half of the cigarette against the wall behind him. He probably should have used one of the butts he usually left in the crevasses between the bricks of this wall, but he'd thought he would need a whole one rather than just half.

As he stepped back into the bar, he didn't notice another shadow behind him; he was startled by the sounds of a scuffle behind him, and turned back around to see Sun and...someone else struggling against each other. Luckily she hadn't drawn the hefty broadsword, but that was probably due to the ease with which she caught the other, unfamiliar, woman's arms behind her back.

Or...was the other woman even trying to fight back?

Sun glanced up at him. “Looks like we've been found out,” she growled. “This is a WRO agent, I saw her around in her uniform before.”

“Hahaha, no,” said the other woman with a toothy grin. “I'm not out to wreak justice on you guys or anything. I've been discharged and heard someone here was hiring.”

“Really? Discharged?” Dave's flat, even tone had a note of disbelief in it. “What for?”

“They found out that I'm blind,” she answered, and removed her bright red, teardrop-shaped lenses to show him.

Dave's jaw nearly dropped as he saw. From the light coming through the open door, which reflected off her eyes, he could tell that the irises of her green-blue eyes were clouded and rimmed with red.

“They kept me around because it seemed as if my eyes were better than anyone else's,” she went on. “In reality, it was all acting; since my other senses were way better than my eyes ever were, I was able to make it seem as if I could see things no one else could. They just found out today, when I screwed up and fell down the stairs chasing you all down them.”

Dave's fingers subconsciously reached up to touch a jagged scar; his personal memento of his own experience. “I could've warned you about the stairs.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just gonna upload these as soon as I get them done; I haven't been doing that, and it screws me up every time I go to add another chapter and I have two done but I forget and accidentally leave a chapter-sized GAP. >:U
> 
> ...oh, and I couldn't help that last little reference, there. I really couldn't. XD


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which some of the boys do a little late-night traveling.

John startled out of his half-doze as someone came to sit on the couch beside him, and he looked over at the newcomer. It was one of the people who had come to rescue them...wasn't his name Jake? The older man leaned back and his eyes slid shut as John watched.

And then he felt a little like a creeper for watching the guy.

Karkat, who was leaning against John on his other side, looked over, as well. “You seem tired,” he remarked.

Jake sat up and looked around John at Karkat. “I am a little, yes,” he replied.

“Go to bed, then. You probably need the sleep.”

“Oh, I have no doubt of that. I need to wait to see the doctor, though, it's a tad important.” One finger tapped the frame of his broken glasses. “I'm amazed these things haven't fallen apart where they sit,” he went on. “Besides, it looked as if the two of you were nodding off, as well. Not going to the bar?”

“I don't drink,” John said with a small laugh.

“I see.” Jake leaned back again. “I still haven't figured out whether I do or not,” he added to himself.

“Well, that's not a weird thing to say at all,” Karkat muttered.

“Sorry,” Jake smiled. “I keep forgetting there are people here not in the know. Seems I've gone and lost a fair bit of my memory recently.”

“A fair bit? You mean, like most of your memory, or all of it?”

“The only thing I remember is my name.”

Karkat was silent, while John let out a small “oh”.

After a moment's pause, though, Jake spoke up again. “However, I do seem to have recalled a tiny smidgeon, and I have your overprotective friend to thank for that.” His tone wasn't bitter in referring to Gamzee; rather, the whole sentence seemed to carry a hint of foreboding with the way he'd said it. “When he attacked me, I felt a sort of...deja-vu kind of happenstance. Like I'd been similarly attacked before. Of course I already knew I had been, but I actually remembered it.”

“Where were you attacked?” John asked.

“Banora, I believe it's called,” Jake answered. “The small town that I believe was destroyed by a ShinRa air raid many years ago?”

“Banora was burnt to the ground,” Karkat snorted. “There's no way you could have ended up there.”

“Oh, yes there is, KK,” piped up a new, lisping voice; Sollux's. “Remember, Nibelheim was burnt to the ground not long after Banora, and your cuddle-buddy was born there. Maybe they built up Banora, too.” He took a swig from the glass in his hand and plopped down on the couch beside Jake.

“I've flown over where it's supposed to be. There's a little hole in the ground, maybe a few trees, nothing else. You've never been outside of Midgar, so how would you know?”

“I have been outside of Midgar, actually,” Sollux said, glaring. “When I was a kid my family took me to visit Costa del Sol once a year. Since it was a long road trip, we always went to sight-see around Midgar before actually heading off. The houses in Banora are tiny, more like shacks, and you can't see them from the air because of how bushy the trees are. I know what I'm fucking talking about, KK.”

“Don't call me that,” Karkat grumbled, but he didn't say any more. John sensed his irritation and tightened the arm he'd had around him. There was another silence, this one decidedly more uncomfortable, while Sollux took another sip from his glass with a self-satisfied smile on his face.

Then the hacker looked up. “Well, then, let's go.”

Jake, John, and Karkat stared at him with bewilderment. “What?” Jake finally said.

“You need to figure out what happened to your memory, Egbert over there's just burning with impatience, and I know for a fact KK wouldn't leave him alone. Plus, I'm the brains, so of course I'm going.”

“You're drunk,” Karkat said.

“What? No, I'm not. This is water, dipshit. I don't drink.”

“Sure. Then what are you doing in a bar?”

“Winding down after rescuing your sorry ass.”

“Jake did more work than you did.”

“More physical work. Trust me, brain power is more exhausting than it sounds.”

Karkat rolled his eyes in exaggeration. “Fine. Whatever. Don't mind the fact that there are probably WRO agents around every corner looking for our 'sorry asses' after our little spiel in the biggest fucking building in the world. No, let's just waltz out into the romantic fucking moonlight, and when we run into a soldier, it'll be just fine! 'Oh, hey, Pyrope! Just out enjoying the breeze! You want to take me in? Oh, OKAY, that'll be just fucking SWELL'.”

“Hold on, let me grab the handcuffs,” said a new voice from the door, and Karkat practically jumped out of his skin as Dave and Sun walked in, parading Terezi between them. Sun was trying to repress what looked like a huge guffaw while Terezi grinned at him.

He pointed an accusing finger at them. “What the actual fuck is she doing here, Valentine,” he demanded.

“Interrupting your hilarious rant,” Sun replied, unable to hold back the laugh that came with the sentence. “You're definitely a Highwind, no doubt. Actually, Dave and I just caught her outside. We're basically holding her prisoner at the moment.”

Karkat snorted. “Basically.”

“Look, me and Sun've got it covered,” Dave interjected. “You can stop your PMS-ing now.”

“What is that feeling I'm getting?” Terezi snickered. “Is someone blushing?”

Indeed, Karkat was turning a bright red, but out of rage. “Shut the fuck up, scum,” he hissed at her. “I don't associate with anyone who hurts John.”

Her grin faded as Dave began pulling her upstairs, and she took on a more guilty expression. But nothing more was said as the two headed upwards. John reached out to grab Karkat's hand; he'd gotten to his feet somewhere in the middle of his heated monologue. Sun sighed, rolling her eyes, and was about to follow Dave and Terezi when she turned back.

“Oh, Jake. Rose said something about you needing new glasses. I have a spare in the top drawer by the sink in the kitchen; I don't know if it's your prescription, but I'm betting it'd be better than the ones you're wearing. I can get a hold of some new ones in a couple of days, if not tomorrow, but in the meantime you can use those.”

“Oh,” Jake said. He'd forgotten yet again about his glasses. “Thank you.”

She shot him a grin before bounding up the steps two-at-a-time. When she'd left, Karkat sighed and sank back down on the couch beside John.

“God damn it, I'm so sick of life right now,” he said in a sigh as John squeezed him tight.

“Looks like you could use a walk,” Sollux said, and Karkat glared at him. “What? It's true.”

Karkat sighed, as if his ranting had drained him. “You're right. I do.” He snuggled against John's chest. “But how the hell would we be able to get out of here without being arrested?”

Sollux grinned. “Is that a yes?”

“Whoa, wait, I never agreed to this,” Jake said. “I don't need you all to worry about helping me. I can go alone.”

“Nope,” Sollux said. “I'm bored and have nothing better to do - ”

“Except 'Kitty' Lalonde,” Karkat muttered against John's chest.

This time Sollux reached over and landed a punch on Karkat's shoulder. “As I was saying, I have nothing better to do, Mr. Dickhead over there obviously needs a breath of fresh air, and John's practically jumping out of his seat with anticipation. Plus...”

Sollux set the glass of water down on the coffee table beside the couch, and smirked, steepling his fingers in front of him.

“To answer your question, KK, I know a great way out of the city.”

“Sewers.”

“Yes...and no.”

)O(

Sun was right about those glasses not being of the right prescription; they were a little blurry as Jake slipped them on. But at least they fit.

The tunnels Sollux led them through weren't sewer tunnels; they ran in the wrong directions. And they weren't man-made. Jake ran his hand along the wall of the tunnel, raising an eyebrow.

“Worm tunnels.” John's wondering voice was louder than it should have been, and it echoed off the rough earth walls.

“Yup,” Sollux confirmed. “These tunnels are really old, the result of worms from the beaches tunneling to get away from one of the Weapons that the great heroes fought. It came up from the sea over near the northern continent and was killed by the Sister Ray on its way to Midgar.”

“You wouldn't strike me as the kind of person to know all this,” Karkat said, still a bit sour.

“I paid attention in world history,” Sollux replied. “My partner in that class was totally psyched about this kind of thing, and naturally you want to impress the girl you have a high school crush on, don't you?”

“Wait, you have a friend besides Roxy? That's surprising.”

“Not as unsurprising as how little you actually know about me, KK. Do me a favor and shut up, would you?”

Karkat just grumbled under his breath some more until John sped up to walk beside him, grabbing his hand with a smile. Jake didn't know how the kid could calm that perpetual rage, but somehow he did.

The journey took them a couple of hours, somewhat faster than Jake's trip to Edge, but of course that was due to the amount of people cluttering the streets above, and of course there was no such convolution here. As it was, they took a break about halfway through to devour some of the snacks Sollux had haphazardly thrown in his backpack.

When Jake saw everything taking up space in that backpack, the computer paraphernalia and books full of coding, he wondered how the food had even fit in such a small space. Perhaps Sollux just had a knack for it.

The moon was just at its zenith when the four came out of the tunnel into the night air. There was a blue-green glow, brighter than the moon, coming from within a circle of trees a few yards off. Jake found that his heart was pounding; their coming here may have been spur-of-the-moment, but he found he didn't know if he wanted to find out what it was he was forgetting.

The group approached the ring of trees; John beginning to nod off, Karkat trying to keep him awake, Sollux ignoring the both of them and leading the way into the foliage, and Jake himself bringing up the rear. Before long, they were halted by the pool at the center of the trees, the “water” glowing phosphorescently and lifting off the surface in ribbons of turquoise-white light. Jake could see through his somewhat depleted eyesight across the pool, and noted small walls of wood and brick behind smaller walls of stone; Sollux had been right about the population here.

“This isn't water,” Karkat breathed, uncharacteristically calm. “This is the Lifestream.”

Jake knelt by the pool and reached out a hand as if to touch the surface, but instead his hand hovered over it, letting a ribbon languidly wind around his arm. He realized that up close, it didn't look anything like water texture-wise. It was billions and trillions of lines of white and bright green-blue light, snaking together and listlessly flowing in a dry lake bed. Though there was water at the bottom; a couple of inches of it, he could barely see it through the small streams of energy.

“This is what Mako's made from, then,” he said.

“Not just Mako,” Sollux replied. “It also makes up materia. It's kind of like a fossil fuel, like coal or oil, only it's made up of the life energy of dead things instead of their bodies. It's one of the reasons Sun doesn't use it very often; she's said she feels no better than ShinRa did when they were exploiting Mako to get what they wanted.”

“I see,” Jake mumbled, not really paying attention. He was mesmerized by the slow, gently twisting strands of light flowing around his hand as though to touch it but changing course at the last moment.

After a pause, Jake looked to his left to see John staring at him, a small, worried line in his forehead.

“Where did you wake up?” he asked quietly. As if this place was somewhere to be silent and reverent, like a library, or a church.

Jake didn't answer his question at first, instead looking around. He glimpsed a bit of crushed foliage and got up; the place looked somewhat familiar, but he went to the area and checked around to make sure.

“Here,” he answered, and the other three joined him. The expanse before them was a bit scuffed up, as if it had been destroyed by a recent fight. Which it had, though not very recent; Jake had woken up that night a little over a week ago. But it had been recent enough that the flora hadn't had time to grow and conceal the evidence.

“Wow, you and whoever jumped you really tore the place up,” Karkat whistled.

“Any of this ringing any bells?” Sollux inquired.

“Not particularly,” Jake answered, and Karkat groaned exasperatedly.

“Oh, come on,” he growled, his previous calm, almost happy state seeming to have vanished. “Look, you're not gonna get anywhere just looking. You've already seen it! So, what happened here before you lost your memory, again?”

“You know perfectly bloody well, Highwind. I was in a fi - ” That was all he managed to say before he had to dodge a hard swing of Karkat's fist. He ducked too low, however, and ended up falling backward into the soft earth.

“KK, what the fuck?” Sollux snapped as Jake began to regain his footing.

“Exposure,” Karkat answered simply. “We get him to experience what he did before, and it'll trigger his memory. I think. It's worth a shot,” he protested at John's disapproving expression.

“And here I thought you were somehow angry with me, old chum,” Jake said as he got to his feet, brushing himself off. The grin on his face, however, must have alerted Karkat, for his own punch was met with nothing but air. Karkat smirked from his crouched position before landing an uppercut to Jake's jaw.

The game is afoot, Jake thought, exhilarated, as his head snapped backward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys should love yourselves, ‘cause I love you all enough to stay up ‘til 2:30 AM typing all this up and then ‘til 3 AM posting this everywhere. XD
> 
> …that and I’ve had a LITTLE too much caffeine today. ._.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Karkat and Jake go for a round of fisticuffs, and then Sollux has a flashback.

Jake didn't think he'd ever felt more alive. It was as if he and Karkat were in their own world – though, Jake was trying to imagine it wasn't Karkat, but the hazy shadow he'd seen in his half-recalled memory. This was his only lead and he wasn't about to squander it by not remaining focused.

He and his opponent exchanged blow after blow; some connecting, others not. Their audience of two watched nervously. Or, at least, Jake thought they were, but he didn't have the will or the time to tear his focus away from this battle.

At one point, he got Karkat pinned face-down to the ground, one arm twisted behind his back and the other crushed by his own body. His back heaved for trying to breathe, and Jake realized the hand he was using to hold Karkat's head down into the earth was too firm to allow him air. He released him and stepped back.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked.

“That's the point, fuckass,” Karkat sneered as he got up, his face scuffed with dirt. “I didn't tap out.”

“I couldn't see your arms.”

“Well, you're seeing them now.” With that, Karkat charged forward, grabbing Jake around the middle and throwing him to the ground. His fists found Jake's chest, shoulders, face, the air and ground on either side, and Jake's own blockading hands.

After about five minutes of their wrestling match, Jake found he had Karkat in a headlock, and the two were leaning against each other, panting and grinning foolishly at each other, on the soft ground. He had spaced out for much of the fight, and this had led him to start recalling small details of the memory he had lost.

Sleek, black wings and tufted, catlike ears. Eyes that glowed white. A narrowly dodged sword that had never quite made it in for a mortal injury.

And yet, Jake realized this wasn't the memory he wanted to regain. He wanted to remember farther back, back to perhaps the last year, the last fall...even last month would have been nice. Instead he was plagued by the memory of beaten into the ground by some unknown, Mako-generated monster.

“Are you okay?” Karkat asked after a moment of regaining his breath, his voice somewhat less gruff than before. “Did you remember anything?”

“A tad, yes,” Jake answered. But before he could go on, a small, high-pitched ringing noise came from behind them. They turned to face Sollux, who was tugging a small phone out of his pocket to put to his ear.

“'Sup, Dave,” he said. There was a pause as he listened to the voice on the other end. “I'm at Banora, why?” Another pause. “Helping Jake out – no, it's just me, Jake, John, and KK...What?”

As the three watched, he snapped the phone shut and stalked in the direction of the tunnel they'd arrived from, not waiting for the others to catch up. They did anyway, and the four reached the entrance to the tunnel at the same time.

“What's wrong?” John asked as they entered. “What did Dave say?”

“He asked where we were,” Sollux said simply. His voice carried a harsh undertone.

“And? There's gotta be more than that.”

Sollux said nothing for a moment, instead concentrating on heading where they were heading at top speed. He broke into a run as they entered the main tunnel.

“Roxy's missing,” he called behind him, and the three looked at each other as they changed pace to match his.

)O(

A gentle hand shook Sollux awake, and he lifted his head from the cold cement to prop himself up with an elbow. His head ached, everything ached; thinking back, he tried to remember.

Oh, yeah.

There had been three of the huge guys, too many to be after a single, scrawny man just barely out of adolescence. Just one of them would have been sufficient to draw blood. But it seemed as if the muggers always had cronies, even for the most weak-looking of targets.

One man was hovering nearby, just behind the man holding him, just a little nervous to be jumping someone in the dead of night. Another leaned against the opposite wall of the alley, smoking, ready to jump in if need be, obviously the leader. The last was holding him up against the wall by his neck, and he fought for breath, senses swimming and vision going dark.

“I asked you where your god-damned wallet is, kid!” the one holding him had snarled, shaking him.

“Don't...have a wallet,” he managed to get out. “No...money - ”

He'd broken off as the man's hand squeezed tighter around his neck, completely blocking his throat.

“You fucking liar!”

“Hey, boys,” a new voice had said, and Sollux blinked his failing eyes in the direction of the alleyway's entrance, but he'd blacked out before he could make out much more than familiar, piercing magenta eyes.

It was into those magenta eyes he was now staring, and he recognized the face as Roxy Lalonde's. Just great; a drunken warrior to his rescue. He'd met her a few days before, when she'd dropped by to visit the man whose computer he was fixing, at some bar in the middle of town. She'd been utterly obnoxious and off-putting from the very start, and he couldn't get out of there fast enough.

But she seemed sober for the time being, and placed a comforting hand an his shoulder as he sat up. “Sollux, right? Are you okay?”

“F-fine,” he stammered, and she giggled. She was surprisingly cute when she did that, he realized. He looked around to distract himself, his eyes falling on the huge mass of one of the muggers. “Did you do this?” he said in shock.

“Oh, you have a lisp! That's so cute!” she gushed, and Sollux wondered if “sober” was really the right word for her. “But, yeah, I did. We should probably get out of here before they wake up.” She grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet. “Can you walk?”

“Don't be an idiot, of course I can – ” He broke off as his knee gave way, and she hurriedly stepped closer so that he fell onto her rather than the ground. “Don't say a fucking word,” he glowered.

“I wasn't going to,” she said, giggling again, but he knew she wanted to. He leaned on her for support, and realized she'd grabbed his backpack and slung it over her own shoulders.

“Where are we going? Or should I ask where you're taking me?”

“7th Heaven, duh,” she said. “I don't know where you live, so I just started walking in a direction I knew. You know those guys are gonna wake up soon, and by the time they do we have to be a long ways away.”

“You can just beat 'em up again,” Sollux muttered.

“Yeah, but I don't feel like it. I came all this way to get plastered, not to beat up morons who don't know their red cheeks from their black inches.”

“Their what from their what? That sounds kind of disturbing.”

“Sorry, inside joke,” she said with yet another giggle.

They were silent after that, and soon the painted sign of the bar came into view. That's when she decided to ask another question.

“All this hardware in here,” she said, jerking the thumb of her free hand toward the backpack she'd rescued. “Can you hack stuff? Well, I mean?”

He was hesitant for a moment. “Well enough,” he finally said. “What, are you an undercover WRO agent or something?”

“Far from it, actually,” she laughed. “Think of the exact opposite.”

That was how Sollux had joined neo-AVALANCHE a little less than a year ago.

–

His strides were long and furious as he fought down the overwhelming panic, and he barely heard the pounding of his companions' feet as they struggled to catch up.

“Sollux, slow down,you fucking jackass,” he heard Karkat call tiredly from behind him. “Jake and I just got done fighting, remember?”

He ignored the plea, keeping up his breakneck pace.

“Sollux!” John was the one who'd spoken this time. “Think about it, all running will do is tire you out. What if we're too tired when we get there and they need us?”

That made him slow down a bit, his dash turning into more of a jog. Still a fast jog, however, but the three were able to catch up, panting a little. Well, John was only panting a little. Karkat and Jake, however, were more like dogs in the heat of summer with their tongues hanging out.

They took surprisingly few breaks on their way back to Edge, which took about half an hour less than the way to Banora had been, but there were minimum complaints from any of them. For which Sollux was grateful. And when they burst through the back door, there still hadn't been any news of Roxy's whereabouts.

Sollux spied an angry note written in red ink held to the refrigerator by an especially girly magnet (probably so as to be ironic) and snatched it, reading it aloud. Sun was out, flying around the city to see if she could spot anything, and Rose and Dave – having been lucky enough that their faces hadn't been seen during the infiltration – were outside looking as well.

“Nice timing, jackass,” was the final line to the note, but he didn't read that part out loud.

He felt enough like shit as it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY CRAP I've typed a lot today...I really hope I don't burn myself out... Maybe I should take a break and draw some kind of picture or something. XD


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the author was lazy, exhausted, and just getting over an emotional breakdown.
> 
> Also, neo-AVALANCHE has to neo-AMSCRAY before there's a neo-DROPPAGE OF HALF THE CITY ON TOP OF THEM.

Jake stared after the recently closed door, a hint of incredulity still on his face. “Should we have let him go?” he asked Karkat, who was on the couch with John asleep on his lap.

“Not like we had a choice,” Karkat replied, his fingers lightly smoothing out John’s soft hair. “It’s obvious he’s in love with her, if you think about it. Us preventing him leaving would only have made him angry with us.”

“What if he gets hurt?” Jake asked, and Karkat rolled his eyes.

“You’re a little paranoid, aren’t you?”

“We are members of a terrorist organization,” he pointed out.

“Point taken. But Sollux is virtually safe; no pun intended. All he does is the computer stuff. The WRO wouldn’t recognize him unless he did something in the past, but I don’t think he would have.” His own speech was beginning to make his eyes almost close, and he focused on caressing John’s cheek softly as the boy in his lap slept.

“Oh.” John sighed. “Well, if that’s that…”

“Go check on your boyfriend,” Karkat half-mumbled, his eyes becoming harder to keep open, even through the smirk he cracked at Jake’s indignant noise.

“I’ll check on _Dirk_ ,” he emphasized, “and then go to my room for sleep. Are you just going to sleep right there?”

“Even if John wasn’t on me right now, I still wouldn’t be able to move. I’m amazed you’re still standing.”

“So am I,” he replied in a half-whisper, and he went up the stairs, tossing a “good night” back over his shoulder.

Karkat’s hand stilled on John’s face, and he allowed his eyes to slide shut the rest of the way, not caring that the light was still on as he drifted to sleep.

But he wasn’t to remain asleep for long; about an hour or so later, he became aware of the sound of footsteps outside, and the door was shoved open roughly. His eyes remained closed, however, and he was aware of the people coming in talking in loud voices.

“How many thugs? And which ones?” That was Rose’s voice.

“About half a dozen or so.” Sun’s constant matter-of-fact tone. “Shit, quiet down, guys, John and Karkat are asleep.” The lights dimmed, and Karkat felt something warm and fluffy surrounding his shoulders. Sun continued, more softly. “Anyway. Most of them weren’t very noteworthy, but I know I saw Zahhak in there somewhere. How they managed to throw him down I’ll never know.”

Karkat found himself more alert, though still wanting to return to unconsciousness, as he realized they must be talking about Sollux or Roxy, or both.

“Dude, this guy’s heavy,” came Dave’s even monotone. “Out of the way so I can take him upstairs.”

“Are there enough beds?” Rose’s voice asked.

“There’s one left, mine. I’m pretty sure neither of them will mind if we have them share a bed, though.” Sun let out a breathy sigh. “Looks like I’m taking the floor if anyone else gets hurt. This couch looks really comfy, though.” Her voice was half-joking, and Karkat heard the plop of her landing on the other couch. “Think you can take care of them by yourselves? I’m beat.”

“We can handle it,” Rose assured her.

The light went off all the way, and footsteps faded up the staircase. Karkat allowed himself to start again toward sleep, but then he heard the creaking of the floorboards and sensed someone was standing before the couch in front of him.

A gloved hand was ruffling his hair now, and he heard Sun’s voice again. “The hell have I got you kids into.”

Her tone was regretful.

)O(

Sollux woke up cradling Roxy in his arms. The scent of antiseptic drifted in his nose as his eyes opened, and he took in the sight of the woman he was holding in the morning light drifting though the window. Her eyes were closed, her brow furrowed, and there was a small pad of gauze taped to a wound on her cheek.

“Roxy,” he said softly, taking her shoulder in his hand and shaking it gently.

She stirred slightly, groaning as she came awake. “S…Sollux?”

“How are you feeling?” he asked her.

Immediately she cracked a mischievous grin. “Great,” she said. “I could beat up those thugs all day. They were nothing.”

He was silent, thinking back for a moment. Apparently Roxy had been out for a longer walk than usual, nothing more, and in her drunken haze had forgotten to tell anyone. And then Sollux had to get cornered by a group of WRO agents. Of course he fought back; but there was only so much a single computer hacker with no fighting experience could do against a group of six well-trained combatants.

So of course Roxy, upon passing on her way back to the bar, had to save him yet again. How she hadn’t been spotted by Sun in the air or Rose and Dave on the ground escaped him.

And now she was looking quite content, wrapped in Sollux’s arms in the twin-sized bed, and she snuggled closer to him. She had obviously woken hungover, and that coupled with the pain of the fresh bruises on her arms and face probably rendered her unwilling to move.

“One of those ‘thugs’ was Equius Zahhak, you know,” he pointed out. “They must know something’s up or they wouldn’t have attacked us.”

“I know.” And her voice was bitter. Sollux was about to reply when he heard the door slowly open, and they looked toward it to see Dirk standing there. He had no shirt on but was holding one in a hand, and the lower half of his torso was swathed in clean bandages.

“You guys should get up,” he said. “We’re leaving.”

“Leaving? What for?” Roxy growled; she obviously didn’t enjoy the thought of leaving the warm bed.

“Roxy, you guys were attacked by WRO agents. That means they know where you hang out. That means they’ll come looking for you and find us. We need to move out.”

–

Gamzee and Tavros were staying behind; Tavros had since recovered, but they had no way to transport him away. Sun didn’t have a wheelchair for him, and it would take a two-day flight to gather a disassembled one from the doctor in the south.

Though, there was some confusion as to how they would remain undetected by the army; until Dirk pulled a lever beside an arcade game that stood against the wall. The wall beside the door shifted forward and pulled out of the way to reveal a hidden dumbwaiter.

“Uh…do we really have to go, um, in that?” Tavros stammered, eying the dark hole with the kind of look a rabbit generally gives a fox when it’s too frightened to run. Gamzee was carrying him on his back again, and he gave the smaller man a quick, comforting sideways glance. It seemed to embolden Tavros a little, Sollux noticed.

Sun was carrying a pile of sheets and a comforter she’d gathered from a linen closet, and she entered the dumbwaiter first.

“We can’t drag a whole bed down there,” she explained. “For one thing, it’d be too big for the dumbwaiter. For another, it’d look suspicious if one of the rooms didn’t have a bed, so you’re just gonna have to deal with a ton of blankets.”

“Th-that’s okay,” Tavros said as Gamzee carried him into the dumbwaiter, and when Sun nodded, Dirk pulled the lever and the door closed again.

“What if she wants to come back up?” Jake asked.

“There’s a lever on her side of the door, dumbass,” Sollux said. “No one could get it with their arms full.”

“Hey,” Dirk said in a warning tone, adjusting the hat on his head. “This is no time for argument. Sun, mini-Lalonde, and little Bro going to take care of shit here, but that means we need to get out of here. I want that to happen with little to no bickering involved, all right?”

Sollux rolled his eyes pointedly as Jake nodded, and Dirk fixed him with an unamused glare. “You know it’s kind of your fault we have to go through this, don’t you, Captor? I suggest you shut your lisping mouth before we get in even more trouble. Can you do that?”

Sollux glared indignantly at him. “I didn’t _thay_ a fucking word, _Thtrider_ ,” he emphasized.

The two stood staring evenly at each other until Dave strode forward and landed a solid punch in his older brother’s upper arm. “Didn’t you say we need to get this done without arguing, Bro?” he remarked.

Roxy came from behind Sollux and laid a hand on his arm, her eyebrow quirked, and Sollux relaxed his gaze a little.

“That I did,” Dirk said in answer to his brother’s question, holding Sollux’s eyes with his own for another moment before turning away. “Let’s go. You know those worm tunnels, right, Captor?”

“Yeah,” he answered begrudgingly.

“Then that’s the way we’re taking.”

They were interrupted by a knock on the door, and the group – Rose and Dave, the two that were staying behind; and Karkat, John, Jake, Dirk, Sollux, and Roxy – exchanged glances with one another. Wordlessly, Dave was the first to move; he held a fist out toward his brother, who bumped it back with his own knuckles, and the smallest of smiles tugged at Dave’s lips while Dirk smirked broadly.

“See ya later, Bro.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess the next chapter is gonna start with Terezi, since I forgot to put her in this chapter...Sigh.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the author starts with the character she forgot about last chapter. Le sign~
> 
> And Vincent makes an appearance. XD

Terezi was shaken awake by a rough hand, and she opened her eyes to darkness. Of course,she was a little more than used to it, so she wasn't surprised. What did surprise her was the scent of the place she had woken up in; the WRO headquarters still smelled from the years it had been out of use and rotting quietly. Though the smell of cleaning chemicals was ever-present, it hadn't covered up the smell for her, though she didn't know of anyone else who could smell it. Her nose was sharper than most.

This place was different. It had the homey smell of dried herbs and lemon-scented hardwood cleaner, of dust from a day ago rather than from decades of neglect. It smelled slightly of alcohol, of homemade food that set her stomach to rumbling.

It smelled more like home to her than anything else ever had.

“Morning, traitor,” a female voice laughed from nearby, and Terezi could tell from the tone that she hadn't meant to be offensive. “Sleep well?”

The speaker had air currents around her that were different from most people; bigger, though not because of weight. Rather, it was more that there was something extra, something humans generally didn't have... The air currents reminded her of a bird somehow. And that clued her in to whom she was speaking to.

“Morning, Doctor,” she said, a grin spreading across her face. “Yeah, I did.”

“Good; you might need it,” Sun replied.

“Why, what's going on?”

Sun explained what had happened the night before, ending with what had led Sun to be down here – in the room below the dumbwaiter that they'd put Terezi in last night. “And that's how it is,” she finished, “most of the kids are gone and the four of us are down here. Rose and Dave are up top dealing with the authorities now.”

“Wait, the four of us? Who are the other two?” Terezi asked with a melodramatic quirk to her lips.

“...Well,” Sun said after a pause. “Let's just say that I'm not down here to hide.”

Terezi raised an eyebrow, turning around the woman in front of her to face the rest of the room. She heard the telltale even breathing of someone asleep, and found she recognized the small traces of voices beneath the smooth inhale and exhale of air. She sighed.

“So, you're down here to keep me from tearing their throats out. I see.”

“It's actually more to keep Gamzee from ripping your throat out,” Sun amended. “Because, while I don't altogether trust you, I doubt you're here to try to kill them. That would be seriously lacking in original strategic plotting.”

“You're pretty smart.”

“Nah, just old,” Sun chuckled.

“How's Nitram doing?” Terezi asked after a small silence.

“He was hurt badly, but since I had to use materia on him he's feeling...almost as good as new now.”  
“'Almost'?”

“He's been paralyzed from the waist down,” the doctor explained. “So I guess not quite 'almost'. Still, you should probably avoid glancing at him when Gamzee's awake to prevent death by strangulation,” she added.

–

“Sorry, man, you can't come in,” Dave said with a voice made of ice. “See, my sister tried cooking earlier. And, well, you thought garlic was bad enough, you should smell its burnt counterpart.”

“I should really keep to knitting,” Rose said with a lighthearted giggle that they both knew was utterly fake.

The man before them in the doorway, a lock of purple hair poking out from beneath his red paper-boy hat, rolled his eyes behind his glasses and glared at them. The two agents behind him shifted somewhat uncomfortably.

“I don't care what it fuckin' smells like in there,” he growled, “we have been given orders to search the premises for some captives that were let loose. Can I at least speak to the doctor, for cryin' out loud?”

Rose's face took on a look of scornful pity. “Oh, sorry, she has been awake all night, keeping an eye on a particularly ill patient. And she has to fly down to Mideel later today so she needs all the sleep she can get; I'm afraid she won't take kindly to being woken for this.”

“Doctor's flyin' the coop, eh?” The agent's expression was one of contempt, though there was relief in his eyes, probably stemming from the fact that he wouldn't have to deal with Sun. “Well, that means you have no right to prevent me from performin' my legal obligations. An' that means you two better get out o' my fuckin' way before I just barge in th - ”

“Are you threatening my nephew and his friend?” The cold voice behind him made the agent stiffen and turn slowly.

“V-v-v-v-Valentine?”

Vincent, who was a head and a half taller than the agent, narrowed his eyes at him. “Ampora. You know you and your ilk aren't welcome here. Why do you insist on intruding upon our lives?”

“W-we ha-have orders to s-search the premi – ”

“Get out of here,” Vincent said simply, but with a dark undertone that made the stuttering Ampora gulp audibly and take off. His two subordinates trailed after him.

“Yo, Vincent.” Dave nodded toward the newcomer, and he and Rose stepped aside to allow him passage.

“Good morning,” Vincent said as he stepped inside, Rose shutting the door behind them. “What was that about?”

“Well,” Dave began, but his explanation never formed as the creaking of the dumbwaiter moving upward was heard and the door opened.

“Vinny!” Sun exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck, then she pulled back and pouted at him. “You were supposed to be back a week ago.”

“Nanaki wanted to introduce me to the new students at Cosmo Canyon,” he explained. “You're lucky a week was all it took.”

“Lucky, schmucky. You told me when you called, remember? I was just trying to be funny.” And she leaned forward to give him a peck on the lips.

Dave rolled his eyes. Sun was always such a badass, even when she was doing doctor things, until Vincent was in the picture. Then she never left him alone, being so clingy and affectionate that it kind of made his stomach churn. He decided now was probably a good time to step in, before they got too into it.

“Shouldn't you be downstairs, keeping a certain prisoner of war from being throttled by a clown in pajamas?” he pointed out.

“Oh, shut up, Dave, can't you give me a moment? Honestly, you do this every time, try to distract me when Vincent comes back.” She sighed and pulled back anyway, however. “He's right, though. I should probably get back down there.” And with one more kiss, she released her husband and went back to the dumbwaiter. When she'd gone, Vincent went over to the couch and sat.

Dave thought he looked about as out-of-place in this homely setting with his cape and weaponry and goth-esque attire as would a wolf in a chocobo stable.

“How was the canyon?” Rose asked as she sat in the other couch – Vincent's cape was spread across the couch he was sitting on.

“Canyon-like,” Vincent replied with a sigh. “Full of people. Though, it was nice to get away from conventional civilization for a change. Anyway, what was Eridan Ampora doing on our front porch?”

“We might have messed up a mission,” Dave explained nonchalantly. “They almost got Rox and Sollux last night, but I have no idea how they were found out.”

“Probably Roxy on one of her drunken tirades.” Vincent sighed, getting up. “It was a long trip. I'm going to sleep.”

“We'll try to keep things quiet down here,” Rose assured him as he clopped up the stairs.

Dave turned on the television when he heard a bedroom door close behind the man, inwardly glad that the fact that everyone was gone meant that all the beds were free. Finally.

“What are you putting on?” Rose asked from her vantage point on the couch.

“The news. Probably a good thing to keep an eye on, you know, considering our friends are wanted fugitives.”

“Point taken.”

They left the television on as they went about their chores. Periodically throughout the day, they heard argument coming from downstairs – mainly between Gamzee and one of the women – and once or twice Terezi and Sun came up to get away from him.

“Gam giving you guys a hard time? Dave asked on one of their abscondences.

“To say the least,” Terezi replied. “Honestly, you'd think I shot Nitram, the way he's acting. Yeesh.”

The bar wasn't exactly closed that day, but seeing as about ninety-nine percent of their regulars were at the festival in Kalm, it wasn't what one would call a particularly busy day.

So it wasn't surprising that, when a particular news story came on, there was no one there to hear it except Rose and Dave themselves.

Dave was running water into the sink to clean off the few dishes that had been dirtied that day, so he missed some of the story until Rose said, “Dave, turn that off!” He complied and dried his hands off, coming into the room where Rose had paused in folding clean laundry to pay more attention to the screen.

“...WRO squad leader Equius Zahhak has told us that the fugitives who escaped the building yesterday are now being pursued, though we haven't been told who the escapees are or any clues as to...”

“What do we do?” Rose asked tentatively, interrupting the broadcast.

“Warn them, if they don't already know. That's about all I can think of at the moment,” Dave replied. He wasn't going to admit it, but he was about as tense under his devil-may-care expression as Rose seemed.

“Should we send Sun after them?”

“Nah,” Dave answered. “They've got fighters with them, and we gave them some fancy materia before they left. They should be fine.”

 _“Should be” isn't the same as “will be”_ , he added to himself, but he wasn't about to tell Rose that. Though she was probably thinking the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was one enormous glob of what I like to call "writer's molasses". Because, you know, you're just trying to pour that molasses out of the bottle and it takes forever and you want to move on to the rest of the recipe but that molasses is STILL IN THE BOTTLE. That's how this chapter was. If that makes sense.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Equius is the biggest cockblock. It is him.

You would think that it would be slow going in the tunnels because of how many of their party was injured – namely, more than half of them – but, owing to the materia they'd had stockpiled for an emergency such as this, after about five minutes they were all as good as new. They were nearing the exit to the tunnels that Jake and the others had taken the previous night, the one leading to Banora.

Jake peered at the small yellow sphere that had been in one of the two slots in his gun since before the whole thing had started, not having noticed it until now.

“I still have no bloody idea which one this is, Strider,” he called ahead as the six made their way down the tunnels. Sollux and Roxy were in the lead, Dirk behind them, and Jake was in the rear behind John and Karkat.

“It's yellow, right?” Dirk called back. “That means it's command materia. Meaning it adds an attribute to you or your weapon.”

“How will I know how it works?”

Dirk rolled his eyes and stopped, waiting for Jake to catch up to him. “Let me see it,” he said when the younger had matched his pace. Jake obliged, handing him the pistol without complaint. He studied the man's orange eyes through the shades as he examined the materia, and realized he'd just caught himself ogling.

Dirk carefully extracted the small yellow sphere from the slot on the underside of the gun, and held it in his palm before rolling it to pinch it between his thumb and forefinger.

“This shouldn't be in a gun,” he finally stated.

“Why not?”

“It's a Slash-All materia. And guns don't slash,” he added. “It's basically meant for a sword or similarly bladed weapon to slash all of the enemies you face. It could work in a gun, but it really works best with a blade.”

“You have a sword, don't you? You take it,” Jake said, holding out his hand for the gun, which Dirk returned.

“All right, but let me give you another one. Then it can be an equal trade.”

Jake quirked an eyebrow, but allowed Dirk to drop a small green sphere into his hand. “All right, but I'm still not used to the bally stuff. I probably won't use it very often.”

“That's why I just gave you a Cure materia. I figure you'll be the type to rely on brute force, anyway. Kind of like me.”

The two paused as John approached them, having separated from the other three when he realized Jake and Dirk had fallen behind. “What are you two doing back here?” he asked. “Come on, we should catch up to the others.”

“Then why did you come back here?” Dirk started, but was cut off by the rumbling of earth above them. He grabbed John's wrist and tugged the boy behind him, and shoved Jake back as well, as the roof of the tunnel not two yards away cracked and shattered, causing a cave-in of the wall and roof before them. And when the dust settled, Jake blinked, coughing, and stared ahead of them. He realized the cave-in must have been larger than he'd thought.

The entire passageway was sealed off. They were separated from the rest of their group.

“Strider, English, are you and Egbert okay in there?” Sollux's ever-present lisp seemed somewhat more pronounced than usual from the other side of the newly created wall.

“We're all fine,” Dirk replied, then turned to his companions. “You are, right?”

“Yes,” Jake affirmed, while John nodded his head. “What about the three of you?”

“We're okay, too,” Sollux replied. “Hold on, we're gonna dig you out.”

“No, you're not,” Dirk said firmly. The sound of rock shifting from the other side had started, but faltered as he replied. “Captor, get those two out. I'll deal with these two. You worry about yourselves.”

“...All right,” Sollux said after a pause, and his voice was reluctant. “Meet you in Kalm, then?”

“Yeah.”

“Karkat!” John suddenly called frantically.

“It's okay, John,” answered the gruff voice from the wall of rock that separated them. “Stick with those two, and you're going to be fine, okay? And so am I. We'll see each other again, I promise.”

“You'd better keep that promise!” John growled, but his harsh tone cracked with worry.

)O(

Dirk shoved aside yet another boulder and wiped sweat from his brow. It seemed they had been digging for hours, and the three of them had yet to create even a small hole in the thick wall of debris. He had long since told John and Jake to unroll their traveling cots and get some shut-eye, while continuing to dig himself; it had to be nighttime by now, and they needed their sleep, while one of them had to stay awake in case WRO agents came down the tunnel. Because not half an hour before, he'd received a text message from Dave telling him of the news broadcast.

They had to work fast, but they wouldn't be able to if they were exhausted.

Finally, Dirk's hand broke through another layer of rock, and pushed through to the other side of the blockage. He allowed himself a small smile and retracted his hand, deciding it was time for a small break. He may have made a small hole, but it had to be large enough to allow passage for at least one person so they'd all be able to get through. And then maybe they should fill in the hole again to hinder their pursuers.

He climbed back down and sat beside Jake's cot a yard or so away from the cave-in, leaning back against the wall, and stopped himself from closing his eyes – he needed to stay awake. But the strain on his materia-healed injuries was beginning to be too much; his side and leg were very sore.

Before long he felt movement in the cot beside him; Jake shook uncontrollably, in the throes of some dream. After a minute or so of this, with Jake not calming down a bit, Dirk sighed, laying his hand on the other's shoulder in an attempt of pacification.

“Jake. Wake up,” he said softly, trying not to wake John as well. When Jake didn't stir except to let out a small whimper, however, he began gently shaking him. “C'mon, man, wake up.”

He was finally rewarded with the sight of Jake's eyes flying open, still rimmed with fear from his dream. He sat up, staring around wildly, and his eyes landed on Dirk.

Before Dirk could say anything, Jake's arms were suddenly around him, and the other man was making snuffling noises in the crook of Dirk's neck.

“Whoa, hey,” Dirk said, startled. “What's wrong?” His arms went around Jake, too, and one hand softly held the back of his head, fingers laced through coarse black hair.

“N-nothing,” Jake replied, voice cracking and muffled by Dirk's shirt.

“Bullshit. What was your dream about?”

“I think... I remembered something,” Jake answered after a brief silence. “I mean, mostly everything. I think. But... I think I would have preferred not to have remembered anything.”

“Why? What happened?” Dirk paused. “You don't have to answer that.”

But he answered anyway. “I think I was a science experiment.” His voice was soft, barely audible, but Dirk heard him.

“What?”

“I was in some sort of glass tube. That was one part of my dream. Then the creature that attacked me before I lost my memory drew some blood from my arm with a syringe. He was huge and pitch-black; had wings, and catlike ears, and a gash across one glowing eye – ”

“Jack Noir,” Dirk breathed. “You're telling me you were a science experiment in Jack Noir's lab?”

“I suppose so,” Jake said, then continued. “And then we were outside – there, where I was attacked. By him, actually.” His arms were getting progressively tighter around Dirk's neck, and he swore he could feel a wet spot where Jake was hiding in his shoulder, as if Noir were here and threatening him right now. “He was the one. He attacked me, to see if I was strong enough. I wasn't. So he left me to die.”

Yes, there was definitely a wet spot there now, coupled with the sounds of the normally tough man weeping quietly. The hand that Dirk had holding Jake's head began petting him gently.

“Sh,” he whispered. “You're not dead now. And I doubt that's going to change any time in the near future.”

“How can you trust me? How can you, when I don't even know if I can trust my bloody self?”Jake's voice was bitter.

And Dirk found himself struggling for the words. The words he'd meant to say from the beginning, that people normally had a hard time saying for the first time anyway, but he was Dirk fucking Strider. Why was it so hard for _him_? Finally, after moments that felt like years of deliberating, he just said it.

“Because I love you, Jake.”

Jake paused, pulling away to stare at him with wide, tearstained eyes, and Dirk suddenly felt as if that was not what he should have said, that he should have said something else, anything but what he had. He looked away. “Damn it, forget I said that,” he said. “I shouldn't have – ”

He was startled when Jake embraced him once more. “No, no, you just surprised me, that's all. I'm just surprised, that you would say that even after all I've just told you.”

They sat like that for a moment in each others' arms, before Dirk spoke again. “Jake, whoever you were in the past, he's gone now. You've made decisions now that your past self probably wouldn't have. I'm not judging you for your past. I'm not judging you, period. I don't care who you were. I care about who you are. And I didn't fall in love with some science experiment. And these emotions you're spilling all over my sleeve are what make you human.”

This time it was Dirk who pulled away, but he leaned right back in – not for another hug, however. His hand found Jake's chin and brought it up towards him, and as his eyes slid halfway shut he saw Jake's own eyes closing.

Before their lips met however, Dirk noticed movement in the corner of his eye, and he instantly snapped to attention. Zahhak was there, an arrow on his bow aimed straight at Jake.

Dirk shoved him aside and turned slightly to catch the arrow in his back, and with a grunt he fell to the ground.

“Dirk!” Jake exclaimed, though Dirk barely heard him. His eyes were shutting of their own accord now, and he struggled to speak.

“Jake. Get out of here. Get John out of here. Run.”

“I'm not leaving you!” Man, what a cliché thing to say. As Dirk fought for breath, fought to stay conscious, he smirked.

“I think... I was kinda hoping...you'd say that,” he managed to gasp out before he lost the fight and fell into deeper darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NO EQUIUS NOOOOO YOU'RE A DICK  
> INTERRUPTING THE FLUFF LIKE THAT  
> YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jake is beaten up, then Equius is beaten up, and then something else happens concerning Sun, and then Dave has a Strife-style emo moment. (Strife as in Cloud Strife, not as in fisticuffs.)

Jake sat staring in horror as his brain tried to run through what had just happened, to try to make sense of it all.

He'd had a dream that was actually a forgotten memory, or maybe a glorified representation of one, and woken up to Dirk attempting to console him. He'd clung to him in a half-awake panic and started questioning himself aloud, only to have Dirk himself say something that...

Had Jake been expecting it? He supposed so, but not right then. Not after he'd cried all over Strider's sleeve, after he'd rambled about his own trust issues. He had been expecting the kiss they'd almost shared; it wasn't as if it would have been the first one, after all, even if Dirk had been a tad out-of-it at the time.

He hadn't expected, however, the sudden, aggressive movement of Dirk throwing him out of the way only to be pierced by an unforeseen arrow.

Jake hadn't realized he'd called out until he heard his own voice echoing around the tunnel. John jumped awake, noticed the man in military garb in the tunnel before them, and scrambled to stand beside – well, more behind – Jake. The older man wasn't paying attention, however, he was more concentrated on Dirk.

The blonde had lost consciousness only a few moments ago, but it seemed longer than that to Jake, who stared at him now, aghast. Dirk lay on the ground, the earth around him darkening with the amount of blood pooling beneath him, the arrow sticking out of his back like a blue flag claiming territory. His fingers found the shaft of the weapon, slipping on the grain of the wood as he gently grasped it to pull it out, but he stopped when Dirk's lips pulled into a slight grimace.

He looked up at the front agent, who had another blue-fletched arrow strung and aimed between his eyes.

He realized he'd never felt as much rage and fear fill him at one time during his entire life.

“John,” he said lowly. “Try and clear away enough rubble for you and Dirk to get away. I'll deal with him.”

“Okay,” John whispered with fear in his voice, and he moved to do as he was told.

“You truly think you have the capability to 'deal with me', lowlife?” stated the agent, glaring through square sunglasses which, when hit with light, appeared as though broken somehow.

“Not only do I have the capability, old chum,” Jake replied, a dark smirk slowly spreading across his face, “I actually quite look forward to it. Show me what those years in bully-training has taught you.”

Zahhak smirked back, and his lips parted in a contemptuous sneer of his own as he tossed his weapons aside.

Then Jake was on his feet, charging for the larger man determinedly.

Rather than rush him blindly, he feinted and spun around the man, clenching his fist and aiming it upward to Equius' jaw from the rear. However, Equius had anticipated the move and spun with him, easily catching Jake's fist in one hand and wrenching him aside. Jake stopped just short of colliding headfirst with the cavern wall and turned back, glad that the new glasses Sun had given him before they'd left stayed firmly on his face.

His smirk was gone as he rushed the man again, this time learning from his first failed move and met him head-on, landing a swift right hook to Equius' side.

The man barely flinched.

“Is that all?” His voice was disappointed as he twisted Jake's arm behind him and forced him to the ground. Jake cried out in pain as Equius twisted harder, forcing him to remain still so as not to hurt himself further. Jake felt the cool metal of what seemed to be a pair of handcuffs go around one wrist and lock firmly around it.

As he did, Jake struggled against him again, but the only way Equius reacted was by twisting his arm harder. Jake bit back another cry of pain.

“It's useless to resist me. I am too strong for you.” With that monotonous statement, the agent brought Jake's free wrist close enough to the other and began tightening the other cuff on it.

“Oi! Are you too strong for me?”

At the sound of a familiar voice, Equius' grip slackened a bit, and Jake was able to lift and turn his head enough to look toward the source of the sound. Something huge and feathered swooped over him, and Equius' weight was suddenly off his victim. Jake scrambled to his feet, the cuff sliding off one wrist due to the agent's distraction in putting it on.

He turned back to Equius and the one who'd accosted him, who turned out to be Sun. She was holding down the man and doing a good job of it, but Jake could tell she was losing. She looked back at him with narrowed eyes.

“Hurry up and help those two!” she ordered. Jake nodded and went to John, who had cleared away a substantial amount of rubble in his panic. Not nearly enough to create any kind of escape route, however. Jake lent his hand, and together they widened the hole enough to fit a person through.

And not a moment too soon. There was a low grunt and then the thud of someone hitting the ground behind them, and they turned back to see Zahhak standing over a prostrate Sun, a bloodied arrow in his hand, which he then snapped in half and tossed in her face.

Then he turned to them.

“Doctor...” John whispered, his eyes wide.

“Did you truly think you could get away?” Equius said, his tone full of contempt. He took a step toward them. “Are you really that absolutely naïve, to think that you stand a cha – ” 

He broke off with a yelp and fell to one knee. Sun, still on the ground behind him, had taken up the arrow he;d thrown at her and driven it deep into his thigh, and now she smirked through her bloodstained lips.

“Now's your chance,” she croaked. “Get D. outta here. Keep him safe, Jake.”

And with that her eyes closed, and she fell back to the ground.

There was a momentary silence, as her body began to faintly glow with the light of the Lifestream, in which Jake took the initiative. He went back to where Dirk lay at the base of the cave-in, gently lifting him and carrying him up the pile of rubble.

“Hurry, go through,” he told John. John nodded, his eyes glistening with barely held tears as he squirmed through the small hole.

When the boy was through, Jake carefully snapped the shaft of the arrow that was still in Dirk's back so that it wouldn't snag on his was through – he wasn't sure whether or not to remove it entirely at the moment – and guided the unconscious man through into John's waiting hands.

That was when Jake turned back to the WRO agent. Zahhak's dark face was distorted into a ferocious glare of pain and defeat, and he remained in a kneeling position, in too much pain to move his injured leg. He had removed the arrow from his leg, and clenched it in one tense fist.

“Don't think this is over,” he said lowly “We will find you. You'll find yourself ruing the day you first imagined going against the WRO.”

“For the time being,” Jake replied sarcastically, “I believe I shall merely cherish and protect my current freedom, thank you.”

With that, Jake followed John and Dirk through into the adjacent tunnel. He took Dirk from the younger boy's arms and propped him against his back, carrying him much like he had in the tunnel from Midgar.

“Keep him safe.” Sun's soft voice echoed down the cavern toward him as he hefted Dirk's weight on his back.

“I will,” he promised in a whisper. And the three made their way down the ancient tunnel.

)O(

Dave swallowed, his poker face melting somewhat as he read John's text message. He looked up at Rose, and he saw her face grow more somber – if that was even possible – as she examined his.

“What happened?” she asked, but her tone wasn't hopeful.

It took a moment for Dave to regain enough composure to answer. “Bro's hurt bad,” he replied. His eyes flicked toward the staircase, where Vincent was returning from his bedroom. “And Sun...”

“I know,” Vincent told him when his voice faltered. “She came to me a minute ago, before returning to the Planet.”

Dave gave a strained, attempted-comforting smile, but then gave it up and went to the couch to sink into it. He removed his sunglasses, practically throwing them onto the table, which caused them to slide off and fall to the hardwood floor with a clatter. He saw Rose bend to pick them up before she went to his side and put her arms around him.

“What the fuck are we supposed to do now?” he growled, his voice cracking. “We can't do this. We can't keep this shit up. Sun was only the first to die, she won't be the last. Who's going to be next?!”

“Don't say that,” Rose murmured.

“Not saying it would be lying by omission,” he retorted. “You're both thinking it, don't deny it.”

“So you're just going to lie down and accept the noose when it comes?” interrupted a new voice. Terezi stood above them with her hands on her hips, having come from the dumbwaiter during Dave's spiel. “Lie down like a wounded deer before the wolves,” she continued, her lips quirked into a sneer. “Isn't this some kind of terrorist conglomerate? Do you really give up that easily? Because if so, it's not worth the WRO wasting time and resources coming after you.”

“I haven't given up,” Dave said menacingly.

“Sure sounds like you have,” she answered.

“No,” he said, disentangling himself from Rose's arms to stand up. “I haven't. I'm not giving up to them. That ain't my style – it ain't the Strider style.”

“That's what I thought,” Terezi said with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A good writer is one who can kill his/her characters without remorse.
> 
> ...apparently I'm not a good writer. I just love Sun so much.... T^T (She was my first ever fan character, of course I'd get attached. Thing is, this isn't the first time I've killed her.)


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Karkat falls on his bum. And then gushes about romantic plays with a familiar FF7 face.

“KK, stop moping around,” Sollux growled over his shoulder at Karkat. “Your boyfriend's gonna be fine. He's with two fighters, remember?”

“I'm not an idiot,” Karkat countered. “I know that. I can't help worrying, though. And stop calling me 'KK', or your name's permanently 'fuckass'.”

Sollux snickered. “With how many times you say that word I thought it already was.” After that remark, though, he was silent, much to Karkat's relief.

The three were making their way around the small pool of Lifestream, Sollux having to stop Roxy from stopping and staring every five minutes – this was her first time in Banora, and her first time seeing this much of the shining energy at one time. Karkat rolled his eyes every time they had to stop, instead opting to walk several yards ahead of them.

That was when the ground caved in beneath him, and he slid – or, more like careened – down the side of a cliff they hadn't realized was there. His descent was only hindered by the ground at the base of the cliff; the earth gave way yet again and he finally landed at the bottom, in a dark cave glowing with the traces of Lifestream that hadn't quite made it to the pool yet. Karkat lay there for a moment; luckily, the cliff hadn't been very tall, but the ceiling he'd crashed through was a good couple of yards up, and he'd been rendered stunned.

As he recovered, the voices of his traveling companions reached his still-ringing ears. “Hey, Karkat, are you okay down there?” he heard Roxy call tentatively.

Karkat waited a moment to catch his breath before replying sarcastically, “Just fucking peachy. The roof broke my fall, so I should be just fine in a year or two.”

“Good thing we'll be down there a lot earlier than that,” Sollux returned, and Karkat made out the sounds of rocks shifting several feet above him as he got shakily to his feet.

As his eyes adjusted and his head slowed down its pounding, he looked around. The cave he had landed in was large, but there wasn't much in it but some rocky pathways and a pool of water about as big as the one of Lifestream outside. 

“We'll have to find another way inside, KK,” Sollux called from the newly demolished roof.

“Just be careful, fuckass. There's monsters around.” Indeed, he sensed the presence of Mako-created monsters nearby, and found his hand questing for the sickle sheathed at his hip.

He paused in his brief reconnoiter, catching the sight of a large stone near the edge of the water, and he inched closer to examine it. His eyes grew wider as he made out the inscription on the plaque; the words hadn't eroded with age, considering its placement beneath the earth.

“Loveless – Prologue,” he read aloud, and rather than reading anything below that, he closed his eyes and recited it from memory. “When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end, the Goddess descends from the sky. Wings of light and dark spread afar. She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Karkat jumped and spun, hand reaching again for his sickle, but the voice that had sounded from behind him turned out to be Sollux. Roxy was coming up from behind him, and Karkat noticed how her magenta eyes were, for once, not clouded in a drunken haze.

“Looks like you guys found a quick way down,” Karkat said.

“Not as quick as your way. What the hell is 'Loveless'?”

Karkat turned back to the stone, gloved fingers tracing the engraved words. “It's a play,” he answered. “My favorite piece of literature. It's about three friends who get separated.”

“By what?”

“Life. You know, shit transpires.”

“Uh-huh,” Sollux hummed monotonously, and paced away, suddenly disinterested in the conversation.

“Whatever, a computer nerd like you wouldn't know good literature if it slapped you in the face with a side of slimy bacon.”

“Hey, I'm a computer nerd, too!” Roxy protested.

“And a lush.”

“Oh, whatever! Are ya gonna tell me what that other thing you said was about? Something about the world ending and some chick giving us gifts, or something?”

“She's already given us her gift,” Karkat replied. “And, technically, the world ended twice, once with Meteorfall and then with the whole Omega and Chaos thing. Remember?”

“Then why are we still alive? World doesn't look 'ended' to me.”

“It depends on how you interpret the phrase 'end of the world'.”

Oh,” Roxy said, as if it were some big revelation. Karkat rolled his eyes. “And what's the present she gave us?”

“It's all about interpretation,” he repeated. “My theory is that the gift she gave us was life.”

Roxy blew a raspberry. “That's boring,” she said. “And cliché. Why not something awesome, like food or something? I'm hungry.”

“That's the point,” Karkat explained. “You need food to live. And so does our food; like, say, an apple. If you pick an apple off a tree and eat it, that apple was alive, wasn't it?”

Roxy groaned. “This is getting boring. Can we talk about something else? Like, say, making food?”

Karkat rolled his eyes for what felt like the thousandth time; he had yet to find anyone besides John who would talk with him about things like this. “Fine,” he said. “Sollux, come on and show me the way out of here so we can build a campfire or some shit,” he called over to the older boy, who was checking his cell phone.

But Sollux didn't reply, instead opening his mouth slightly in a small gasp and snapping his phone shut with more force than necessary.

“What?” Roxy asked, going over to him.

“Sun's dead,” he answered. “And Dirk's about halfway to the Lifestream himself. We need to wait here for them instead of going to Kalm.”

Karkat was suddenly aware of another presence there, less monster and more...human. He looked around, trying to spot a pair of eyes or some other clue to the stranger's whereabouts, but he saw none.

“Sun?” Roxy said incredulously, hands covering her mouth. “How the hell could that happen?”

“A friend of ours named Zahhak,” Sollux growled.

“Zahhak,” said a new voice, and this time Karkat's sickle came into his hand. “If Barret knew the way his descendent had grown up, he'd be turning in his grave.”

“Who's there?!” Karkat demanded, the grip on his sickle handle tight. He saw nothing for a moment, but then a man dropped out of the air before him, having been held aloft by a single black wing.

“A fellow lover of literature,” the man answered. “My name is Genesis Rhapsodos.”

Karkat's grip slackened a touch, but Genesis wasn't finished. “'Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess,” he quoted. “We seek it thus, and take to the sky'.”

Karkat's lip twitched into a half-smile as he replied, “'Ripples form on the water's surface. The wandering soul knows no rest.' Are you the 'G' I've heard so much about?”

“I am,” Genesis said. “And what brings you three crashing down?”

“Technically, he's the only one who crashed,” Roxy pointed out. “Me and Sollux found the more intelligent way.”

“Fuck off, Lalonde.” Karkat flipped her the bird without turning around. “We're kind of running from the WRO,” he told Genesis.

“I see. Well, make yourselves at home; you'll be safer here than most places.” He paused a moment before adding, “I'm sorry to hear about Doctor Valentine. She was a strong fighter, and a good friend.” With that, Genesis lifted off from the ground, a single black feather coming loose as he made his exit.

Karkat caught the feather before it drifted languidly to the ground, bringing it up to eye level to examine it. He couldn't place exactly where he'd seen one just like it.

–

“Ow, fuck, Sollux, that stings,” Karkat said with a hiss of pain.

“Shut up and let me finish cleaning it, Jesus,” Sollux retorted, and he resumed wiping at a scrape on Karkat's back with the sterile pad. Karkat took fists full of his jeans as he squeezed his eyes shut, wishing John was here to get the unreachable injuries instead of this antisocial lummox. John would be more gentle, he was sure.

Sollux finished and placed an adhesive bandage on the scrape, then got up and went to sit by Roxy beside the pool. Karkat got to his feet as well, but headed to the entrance of the cave.

“I'm gonna go wait for the others,” he told them, and didn't wait for a reply before making his way outside. He favored his left leg, the knee of which was now sporting a bruise the size of a golf ball.

Once outside, he concealed himself in the shade of a tree overlooking the glowing pool, and trained his eyes in the direction of the tunnel that John and the others would be coming out of. Before long he heard the labored footsteps of two or three people, and guessed this would be them, but kept hidden in case he was wrong.

As it turned out, he wasn't. He was greeted by the sight of John, in front, staring around nervously, then turning back to help Jake with the burden of a still-unconscious Strider. Karkat revealed himself carefully, making sure not to startle them.

“John,” he called, and the boy jumped and looked toward him, visibly relaxing when he saw Karkat's familiar face. “This way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say I love love LOVE Genesis. And not just because he was based off my favorite J-rocker. <33 (That just makes him awesomer. XD)


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which, um. Fluff. That's basically the gist of it.

Karkat led the three into the cavern, where Sollux and Roxy were already passed out together on one of the cots they'd laid out. He and John left the other two to their own devices, going to the cot in the middle, where John asked him softly about the bruises on his face.

Jake let the semi-conscious Dirk down on the cot that Roxy had laid out for him in lieu of the ones they'd had to leave in the cavern. The man grunted as he was eased down, having braced himself with the arm that was connected to his injured shoulder. After Jake made sure that the man was at least somewhat comfortably situated laying on his stomach, he knelt by his side and reached for the arrow embedded beside his shoulder blade.

“Take that thing out,” Dirk muttered, so quiet that Jake wasn't sure he'd heard him; though he'd seen those lips move.

“Beg pardon? Just pull it out?”

“Yeah. It hurts like a motherfucker.”

Jake nodded, gripping the inch or so left of the shaft that had remained attached to the metal point of the arrow. “Ready?” he asked.

“No, but get it over with, anyway.” Dirk's quiet voice was strained. Jake nodded again, then pulled, the arrowhead coming away in his hands, and Dirk hissed sharply in pain.

“Sorry,” Jake said softly, one hand going back to the newly reopened wound in the other man's back, surprising himself with the tenderness with which he did so. His palm went over the bleeding gash and pressed down firmly to staunch it, not caring about the blood smearing on his hand.

Dirk let out a shaky sigh and closed his eyes, relaxing into the cot somewhat, but the crease in his brow didn't soften. His sunglasses were gone, left behind in the cavern.

“Don't worry about it,” he told Jake.

“But I am.” The younger man's voice was rank with guilt. “If I hadn't been there – ”

“Then Zahhak would have been aiming to kill me, and I would have died,” Dirk returned, glowing eyes opening to stare at him with an emotion he couldn't name. “And if you'd died, I would have wished I'd die instead. See, no one died. We got the best possible outcome.”

“Someone did die,” came John's small voice from his shared cot. He was still huddled together with Karkat, the latter resting his sleeping head on the former's chest. John's blue eyes, slightly illuminated by the glow of the cave, gleamed with unshed tears.

“Who?” Dirk asked with a less snarky tone, and Jake realized he hadn't been conscious when Sun had arrived.

“Doctor Valentine,” he answered, his voice cracking with the memory. “She distracted him long enough for us to get away, but she...”

“Damn.” Dirk's eyes closed again. “It's all gone to shit, hasn't it? So much for neo-AVALANCHE, we never got a very good explosion in.”

They were all quiet for a moment, the steady breathing of the other three, who'd fallen asleep, and the ruffling of feathers across the pool of water the only things rippling through the silence. Finally, Jake spoke with an abrupt subject change.

“Dirk, take of your shirt so I can apply a poultice of some sort,” he said, clearing his throat.

Dirk's mouth cracked in a smirk. “A little forward, aren't you?” But he complied, carefully sitting up to pull the shirt over his head. He turned to Jake, smile still in place. “Don't have any of that retarded peroxide shit on hand, do you?”

Jake raised an eyebrow and quirked his lips in a half-grimace as he set to work, offering a “Shut up, Strider” as he did so.

)O(

Jake had fallen asleep beside him. That was Dirk's initial thought upon waking up, and it made him smile a bit to think that the younger man was comfortable enough with him to do that. He resisted the urge to pull him in closer, not knowing for sure if he returned his feelings or not.

God, why was love so fucking hard?

He settled for reaching his hand over and placing it atop Jake's giving it a small squeeze before closing his eyes.

He woke again what seemed like seconds later, unable to sleep very restfully due to the pain in his back. When he opened his eyes again, he could have sworn Jake had gotten closer. His suspicions were confirmed as the other shivered with a wrinkle in his brow and slid closer.

“Jake,” Dirk murmured, realizing he was having another nightmare. Rather than wake him, however, he did what he'd intended to do earlier; he put his arm around Jake's shoulders, ignoring the sharp pain in his back as he did so, and gathered him to his chest. His other hand went to caress the back of Jake's head, and he buried his nose in coarse black hair.

“Shh,” he whispered, as he heard Jake whimper quietly. And the sleeping man complied; his shaking died down somewhat, and Dirk felt a hand grip the front of the shirt he'd put back on before falling asleep.

He realized that Jake was speaking softly, his slight accent rounding out the words in a way Dirk had always found endearing for some reason. He strained his ears to listen.

“Dirk,” Jake was saying. “Don't die. Please don't die.”

Those six words served to wake Dirk up a little more, and he felt tears prick at his eyes as he realized that was exactly what he'd nearly done: died; yes, to save the life of someone he loved, but the pain was still the same, if not worse.

After all, Sun had died for the three of them, hadn't she? Dirk felt an emptiness in the pit of his stomach. The woman who'd practically raised him and his brother, had trained the both of them and entrusted them with the job she couldn't finish. He'd failed her. He'd failed all of them.

His arms tightened around Jake, and he felt the man stir in his grasp. But he didn't care. He was crying now, the floodgates that were his cursed fucking eyes unleashing wave after wave of salty despair into thick strands of his love interest's hair. He felt arms go around his waist and rub his back in circles, and tried vainly to quell his shaking breath.

“What's wrong?” he heard Jake ask softly into his chest. He paused, then continued. “No, wait, don't answer that. I'm fairly certain I can discern it.”

And Dirk couldn't reply; he didn't trust his voice enough to not crack around the words he didn't want to say. So, instead, he rode out the storm that was his sudden change of emotion, letting his grief pour out until there was nothing left, nothing but dry sobs amidst Jake's attempts at comforting him.

“She told me to take care of you,” Jake said when the last of the sobs died down. “To keep you safe. I thought she meant because you were hurt at the time she said that, but now I know. You're not really as aloof as you play yourself off to be, eh, Strider?”

Dirk scoffed. “So we're back to last-name basis, huh?”

“Dirk,” Jake amended. “Sorry. Force of habit, I wager. Though, I don't think you've ever called me by my last name, have you?”

“You never really told me what it was.”

“Oh, right,” Jake said airily, as if the notion had completely slipped his mind. It probably had. “It's English.”

“Jake English,” Dirk repeated. “How do you even have a name, if you were created?”

“I don't think I was,” he replied. “I think, perhaps, that I was born a normal human-type creature, and then was captured and fiddled with. Which is a slightly disturbing prospect.”

“I'll say.” Dirk took in a shaky breath, his recent emotional breakdown still wearing off. “God, I'm tired...”

“Go to sleep, then,” Jake said.

“Don't know if I can. This hurts a lot more than I make it seem.”

“Why don't we use the materia, then?” With that, Jake pulled away and sat up, much to Dirk's chagrin. He sat up, looking around, then found what he was looking for: the gun that he'd laid aside before going to sleep. “How do you use materia?” he asked as he aimed the barrel at Dirk.

“For one thing, don't aim that at my face, dipshit,” he replied facetiously, but relaxing when Jake lowered the gun with a quick apology. “For another, have you never used materia before?”

“I'm assuming it's different for white magic than black,” Jake replied with a small pout – which Dirk found somewhat endearing.

“It is. Kind of. You can't have a malicious intent, which is exactly the opposite of pointing your gun in someone's face.”

“I see,” Jake said. His face took on a look of concentration, and Dirk sat up.

“I can do it myself,” Dirk muttered.

“I've got it,” Jake answered softly, and the two of them became enveloped in a light green glow as the materia in the slot of the gun reacted to Jake's will. His green eyes were wide and staring into Dirk's orange ones, and the older man found himself unable to look away.

As if he wanted to.

The glow reached up from the green sphere and reached up and around Dirk, and he felt his pain give way. He tried not to make obvious his sudden change in hit points, but Jake could tell, and his prominent teeth cracked through his lips in a smile.

“Feel better?”

“Yeah,” Dirk answered to the hushed question. “Much. I think I can get back to sleep now.”

“Good,” Jake said, and his hand was on Dirk's shoulder now. “Then go to sleep.”

But as Dirk started to lay back down, Jake stopped him. Confused, the blonde looked up into Jake's equally confused eyes.

“Hold on, there's something I want to do first.”

And then Dirk's reply was swallowed up by Jake's lips, anything he wanted to say forcefully thrown to the back of his mind as they kissed. Dirk's eyes fell closed as Jake took the initiative, pressing forward so that Dirk was under him, and while this wasn't how Striders did things, Striders were always the ones on top, Dirk was content with this.

More than content, actually, because now Jake's fingers were tangled in his hair, and another hand was on his chest, and Dirk wasn't sure where to put his hands but on Jake's shoulders to pull him closer. The wound on his back, recently healed but not entirely, pulled a bit painfully, forcing small sounds to come from the back of his throat, but other than that he didn't care.

He knew about as much about Jake English as the man did himself, which wasn't much, but he didn't care.

There was an army after their blood, and he didn't care.

All Dirk Strider cared about was that the man he loved was in his arms and he loved him back, and that was really all there was to say on the matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the belated V-Day stuff, guys. I was mainly preoccupied. Work, some semblance of a social life, that sort of thing.
> 
> (What?! Ari, you can't have a social life!! That's BLASPHEMY!!! ...shut up, inner internet addict.)


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a new character is introduced.

Karkat woke to the feeling of cold metal pressed against the skin of his throat, and his eyes flew open to follow the length of red steel to glare into Genesis' bright green eyes.

"What the fuck is your problem?" he growled, and John stirred beneath him.

"If I were an actual enemy, you'd be dead by now," the man replied, withdrawing his sword from the boy's neck to slide it back into its sheath. "You should have posted a guard."

"We're all fucking exhausted."

"And if I weren't here, you'd all be 'fucking' dead."

Karkat rolled his eyes as he extricated his arms from around John. "Fine. We'll be more careful from now on. Is that really all you woke me up for?"

Genesis shook his head. "Serket and Ampora are tracking the six of you. They're almost here."

"Shit," Karkat enunciated, and gently shook the half-awake John into full awareness. "C'mon, Egderp, wake your ass up and get it into gear. It's time to go."

"Wh-what?" John said, followed with a noise that would have been adorable had Karkat not had other things on his mind.

Around them, their companions stirred as well, either responding to Karkat's urgent tone or to Genesis'. Within moments the few things they'd unpacked the previous night were haphazardly shoved into their packs and they were discussing the recent turn of events. Their one-winged, self-appointed sentry had gone, ascending through the newly-demolished ceiling to keep an eye on the enemy's advance.

"What are we doing?" Karkat demanded of the two older men, though the question was mainly directed at Dirk.

"We can't stay here; even if we hide in the caverns, we'll all either get lost or they'll find us, or both. The festival in Kalm's still going on. We'll split up and meet there, at the inn."

"Why split up?"

"It'll be faster going in groups of three than a group of six," Dirk answered the question posed by Roxy. "I think we should split the way we did before, John with Jake and me, and Karkat with you and Sollux. Two fighters in each group."

"I don't want to split from Karkat again!" John protested, but Karkat rubbed his back.

"He's got a point," he told his boyfriend. "Plus, it'll be easier than figuring out another way of grouping us if we do what we did before. We don't have time to think of another plan."

John bit his lip, but he nodded begrudgingly.

Genesis' voice came to them through the hole in the roof. "If you're going to leave, do it now, before they get here. I have no intention of revealing myself to them."

John gave Karkat a timid, frightened look as he went to stand by Jake and Dirk, and Karkat returned it with a reassuring smile.

"Just stick with them, and you'll be fine," he emphasized. "I'll see you at Kalm."

)O(

Aradia smiled as she peered out the window of the tall building over the flamboyant display below; it wasn't even midday yet, but already the square was filled with rambunctious, costumed dancers and foreign merchants with wares from places like Wutai and her own Bone Village. The sun was a bright, beautiful disc in the vivid azure sky, and the only dark, ominous clouds in the sky were metaphorical ones that she alone was privy to.

This was going to be a long day.

It wouldn't be long until the people she was waiting for showed up, and she couldn't say she wasn't excited about it. When she'd found that city a couple of weeks ago, hidden deep within the woods – the Sleeping Forest – not far from the village, she'd been ecstatic; but it wasn't just the discovery of the place she'd found that was so appealing.

It had been the other discoveries; what looked like some kind of tree-like piece of stone jutted out of the earth beside a large, stone staircase that led up to a shrine of crystal. That crystal had attracted her, mesmerizing her in the way it caught the splinters of sunlight that came over the ridge, casting glass rainbows that blinded her and attracted her eyes at the same time.

The rainbow of colors that greeted her today were less crystalline and more rugged, more plain, but at the same time equally beautiful, and she found herself turning to head out the door to join the festivities. The flower petals and colored bits of paper swirled around in the air, and if any were averted in their paths by the door opening, Aradia couldn't tell.

She had a little while before they showed up. As she went around the booths she recalled what had happened after she'd found the shrine, while she was examining the engravings on the ground around it.

–

A droplet of water plopped onto her bowed head, and she looked up, just in time for a light curtain of water to run down the ridge straight for the shrine Aradia was crouched beside. She braced herself against the stone column, but the water never hit her, merely flowing around the shrine to create a wall of endlessly flowing water, one side of it golden and sparkling as the sunlight danced through it. _One could almost forget that there's a sheer drop on the other side of this,_ she thought, her hand stretching out to hold her fingertips in the moving water.

A subtle glimmer of color appeared out of the corner of her eye, a toned-down bit of red, and she turned, staring at the figure who now stood beside the shrine. It was a woman, tendrils of green-blue light flowing around her illuminated form, golden-brown hair flowing gently in a breeze that wasn't there; Aradia's own mahogany waves whipped around in the torrent of wind kicked up from the water falling around them, some locks tearing free of the loose ponytail she'd tied earlier.

The woman opened her mouth to speak.

–

"Sorry, kid, the inn's full." The sound of the innkeeper's voice a few yards away broke Aradia out of her revery, and she turned. A smile broke across her face, and she paid the man whose festive lei she had been eying, taking two as she made her way across the square toward the arguing men.

"It's kind of important. You don't have any rooms at all?" Aradia remembered that lisp, and her smile widened as she crept up behind her old friend. Sollux was standing with a woman and a teenaged boy, the three of them facing away from Aradia and toward the front of the inn.

"Look around. This is a multi-day event. Everyone's staying here."

"Then where the hell do we go?"

Sollux cut off when a flowery garland passed in front of his vision and fell softly around his neck, followed by two arms that circled around his shoulders. "Sollux!" Aradia exclaimed as she hugged him.

"AA?" Sollux's voice was confused, making Aradia laugh. "What're you doing here?"

"Waiting for you guys, of course!" she replied, releasing Sollux and grabbing his sleeve. "Come on, I have a place for you to stay."

"This is only half of us," Sollux began, but she cut him off.

"I know."

Aradia led the three of them to the building she'd come from, then up the stairs to the room she'd rented a week ago, before the festivities had begun. The other woman, Roxy, was asking endless questions that Aradia consistently evaded with variants of the phrase, "I'll tell you later".

"Solly, who is this chick?" Roxy finally insisted when they got up to the room, jealousy evident in her voice.

"We were high school sweethearts," Aradia lilted, and laughed as a light blush dusted Sollux's cheeks. "My name's Aradia," she went on. "I know who you all are, and I know what organization you're part of.

"Neo-AVALANCHE."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOH DRAMATIC


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which REVELATIONS ABOUND.
> 
> Also, Dave and Jade scheme stuff.

The woman opened her mouth to speak, but before she could Aradia cut her off.

“Are you a ghost?” she asked, bypassing tact.

The glowing woman laughed, and her voice was more ethereal than anything else. “No,” she answered. “A ghost is a hologram built on emotion, an imprint of someone already having joined the Lifestream. I'm not a hologram, just a visitor.”

“So, like, a demon?”

“Nope, not that, either. I'm Aeris, And you're Aradia, right?”

Normally in this kind of case, Aradia would be reaching for the whip she had tied at her side. However, something about Aeris' easy smile and the playful gleam in her eyes – not exactly adherent to the light source, but Aradia suspected the sun didn't have a say in this – kept Aradia from suspecting foul play. Besides, the name had sparked a bit of recognition in her mind.

“You're the last Cetra,” she almost breathed.

“And the fact that you knew that word without being prompted speaks pages about you,” Aeris replied, stepping forward. “But Sun's the last Cetra, remember? I was the second-to last.” Her outline shimmered, and Aradia realized that she was somewhat transparent; the glistening sheet of water was visible, creating the shivery effect on Aeris' materialization. 

“I have a mission for you,” she said.

)O(

“The mission she gave me was to come here and find you,” Aradia finished simply, glancing around the room at her six visitors. The other three of them had come not long after she'd had Sollux's party situated. “And then to go to Cosmo Canyon with you to find the other people the Planet's chosen.”

“Chosen for what?” Karkat asked, skepticism dripping from his voice. “How do we know you're not just making up this improbable yarn to betray us and turn us in to the fucking authorities?”

“Because Sun came to me the other day.”

Karkat snorted. “How do we know you're not making that up, too?”

“Because the only people we told were Dave and them, and also Jade, back home,” John whispered. “We didn't tell anyone else, and I'm guessing neither did they. They might have had it on the news, though...”

“She told me to give you guys a message,” Aradia said, clearing her voice. “She said not to worry about her.”

“Isn't that a perfectly generic message,” Karkat muttered, still suspicious.

But Aradia only laughed. “She said it was a perfectly generic message for ironic purposes, for 'D's' benefit. I'm assuming she meant you, Dirk?”

Dirk nodded. “Only Sun uses that nickname for me. That's settled, then.”

Karkat let out a hefty sigh and headed for the door, only to have his way blocked by Aradia.

“The fuck are you doing? I wanna go enjoy the fucking party,” he growled.

“That's not a good idea,” she replied.

“And why the fuck not?”

“Look out the window, then ask me that again.”

Karkat obliged reluctantly, shooting her a glare before he went over to the window and looked down. Then he ducked swiftly below the windowsill.

“What is it?” John asked. “What's out there?” He got up to look himself.

“Sit your ass back down, there're WRO agents all over the fucking place,” Karkat hissed. “I swear one of them almost saw me.”

“What do we do?” John asked.

“The innkeeper saw us with Aradia,” Sollux said. “If they decide to ask him anything...”

“I already asked him to forget he saw anything,” Aradia assured him. “He's an old family friend, so it should be okay.”

“What about anyone else who saw us together? Or if they come knocking?”

“It'd be illegal for them to kick the door down to search, so if they come we can just pretend we're not home.”

“You've thought everything out, haven't you?” Dirk said with a raised brow.

“Hey, I'm an archaeologist,” she answered with a wink. “Paying attention to details is pretty much synonymous with that.”

–

Jade let the phone ring a few more times before she gave up and ended the call. Neither Karkat nor John were picking up; and the one time she needed them to. Her face settled itself into an irritated glare as she dialed Dave's number.

“Neither of them are answering,” she said when he picked up. “What do we do?”

“Just drive it here yourself without asking, and if he complains you can tell him it was his own fault. This is kind of an emergency. Are you sure you can drive it?”

“I'm pretty sure, I've looked at the controls and it seems simple enough. Not much more complicated than the tractor. But, Dave,” she went on, “I don't think the Bronco can fit more than two people. I'd only be able to fly one of you back.”

“Then take Nitram, he's the one who really needs to get out of here.” Dave was silent for a moment, and Jade could tell he was thinking. “You guys still have that old wheelchair, right?”

“I already took it out of storage and cleaned it up, it should work fine,” she answered.

“Good. You come out here, get Nitram. The rest of us'll stay here and take care of the WRO. Oh, and Jade...”

Dave paused again, and Jade waited for him to say something. After a few more moments of silence, she said, “Yeah?”

“Be careful.” And with that, the click of him hanging up was audible.

She smiled at the phone in her hand, knowing that that was the closest he could get to anything mushy for now; boys didn't like to tell the girls they liked that they liked them, she'd noticed. But Dave was starting to pluck up the courage to tell her, and Jade would be ready when he finally did.

Se shoved the phone into her pants pocket – she'd changed from her dress into something a little more sensible for driving an aircraft, snatching a pair of John's thick jeans – and flashed out the door, waving to her father on the way to the Bronco.

–

Dave was leaning against the building again, not caring where he smoked this time as he puffed at one of the butts he'd stowed in the cracks between the bricks. It wasn't as if Sun was around to swat it out of his mouth anymore, anyway.

A gloved hand smacked the butt out of Dave's mouth, and he jumped, turning to glare at Vincent, who was now standing beside him.

“New management, same rules,” the stoic man informed him. “You know Sun never liked that you smoked.”

“I didn't care about that when she was alive, either,” Dave said with a roll to his eyes.

Vincent shrugged and walked away, saying, “I hope you know what you're doing.”

Dave plucked the still-burning cigarette from the ground, then thought better of it and dropped it again, grinding it into the dust. He took a fresh one out of the cardboard box in his pocket as he replied, “Don't worry. I know exactly what I'm doing.

“Who says vengeance is a dish best served cold? 'Cause that's a motherfucking lie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dave's plotting some fireworks~


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which something happens that you're all gonna hate me for. <3

Dave set the last bomb down behind a small pile of rubble, lifting his shades a little to make sure the gray-colored fuse was indiscernible from the ground. Satisfied, he went back to the first of the five or so explosives – the only one with a set timer, connected to the others by the fuse – and laid his finger on the switch to turn it on.

Briefly, his mind flitted back to earlier that night, to his brief exchange of words with Jade before she’d taken Tavros back to the farm. She’d been worried about him, hadn’t wanted him to go. But, hopefully, she’d seen that he needed to do this; if not for the rest of the planet, then for himself, for the loss of one of the people he loved most.

Hopefully she didn’t come after him.

Just before his finger moved, a hand descended on his shoulder, startling him out of his reverie. He jumped and turned to face Gamzee, who now stood behind him. His poker face never broke, however, and he asked flatly, “Things ready on your side?”

“Brother, this buildin’s gonna light up like the motherfuckin’ sun right before it sets. Burn up just as easily, too.”

Dave let a small smirk tug at one corner of his mouth as he flipped the switch deftly. “That’s what I like to hear. Let’s make some fucking fireworks, Gam.”

“Ooh, can I join in?” came an unfamiliar voice. Gamzee and Dave spun, taking defensive stances as a shadowy figure stepped into view, long braids trailing in the dust behind her.

_Deepground,_ Dave thought in dismay, as the glowing trimmings of her uniform took shape into the unfortunately familiar design. Deepground was the caste of the military above SOLDIER in the days of ShinRa, but their existence was completely unknown until three years after Meteorfall, when they were unearthed – quite literally – and became quite a feared force, nearly wiping out the planet yet again.

Judging from the newcomer’s garb, however, she wasn’t just from Deepground; the fact that the glowing lines on her clothes were a dark pink rather than the standard-issue blue, that suggested she was of a higher status than the average thug.

“You’re a Tsviet,” Dave growled, recalling the name for the more elite within Deepground. He took an involuntary step back. “Who are you?”

She tsk’d in response. “Why ask the name of the person who’s gonna kill you?”

“Why not?” Dave replied snidely. “You’re gonna die, too, if you keep us here. I’ve already activated the bombs.”

“I’m not as fragile as you normal humans,” she sneered.

He moved before she did, the sword normally strapped to his back swiftly gripped in his hand, and he rushed forward despite an exclaimed warning from Gamzee. He held the point of his sword pointing down and behind him as he ran, and swung it up and across easily in time with his pace.

The woman was ready for him, however, and remained stock-still until the last moment. Then she brought up the staff Dave hadn’t noticed her carrying – wait, it was a double-headed trident, not a staff – and braced it in the path of his blade, holding it firmly against the force of his sword before it could cut into her.

The two stood like that for a moment, both grinning confidently at one another, both with sparks smoldering behind their eyes. He took note of her irises, a dusky rose that glowed almost as brightly as the trimming of her uniform.

The Tsviet was the first to move. With a deft twist, she maneuvered the blade of Dave’s sword into a well-placed niche along the shaft of her weapon. She spun the trident, turning it in a full circle, and Dave had to keep a firm hold on the hilt of his Zweihänder to prevent it from being wrenched from him.

This turned out to be a mistake, he realized, as with a metallic, grating  _ crunch _ his sword suddenly became a lot lighter. He had time to see half of the blade spinning through the air, slicing through the single fuse connecting the timed bomb to the others, before e was knocked backward by the golden metal rod wielded by his opponent. He hit the ground, head cracking on a well-sized bit of rubble, and couldn’t stop his eyes from sliding shut.

The last things he was aware of were his name, called by two different, strangely familiar voices, and a violent eruption of noise and heat that threw him again in an entirely different direction.

The ensuing blackness was tinged with red.

–

Dave woke up several yards away from where he’d blacked out. He shifted, groaning, when he discovered how much he hurt. It took a while for him to convince himself to force his body into a sitting position, straining the scrapes and burns he hadn’t remembered having before. He experimentally moved the fingers and toes on each of his limbs, exhaling in relief when he found nothing was broken. Then he reached up to the aching lump on the back of his head; his fingers came away sticky and bloody, and he felt a steady stream of it flowing down his neck.

The verdict: he was hurt badly, but he’d live.

“Gamzee?” he croaked; his companion had been closer to the bomb than Dave, but then hadn’t been fighting some random-assed antagonist. Dave cringed at how easily he’d gone down. At least the woman seemed to have gone.

He realized his shades had broken in half, and that one half was still danging off an ear; he flicked it away irritably and glanced around. The ground around him was scorched, the result of his homemade explosive. With nothing around being flammable, the entirety of the surroundings being made of stone and concrete, nothing was on fire. The building, apart from being fairly blackened and cracked in places, had no other visible damage, and he remembered the severed fuse. One of his bombs had plenty of bite by itself, but not enough to do much to as big a building as the former headquarters for ShinRa, no matter how old the place was.

He looked around again, trying to catch a glimpse of Gamzee; he finally found the lanky man a few yards away, just starting to push himself from the ground. Dave sighed lightly in relief, his eyes subconsciously drifting to the side just a bit.

His breath caught in his throat when he saw her.

She wasn’t moving, and he couldn’t see her face from this far away, but that black mop of hair was unmistakeable.

He was only vaguely aware of the pain as he practically jumped to his feet and dashed toward her prostrate body on the ground, gathering her in his arms as gently as he could. The throbbing pain in his head went numb, and he brushed singed hair from her blackened face.

“Jade,” he hissed urgently. When she didn’t respond, he repeated her name louder, using the hand on her face to hold her lolling head up. “Jade!”

_Please, no…_

She stirred faintly, a small, pained smile spreading across her face as she saw him through her cracked glasses. “Oh, hi, Dave,” she murmured softly, weakly.

He was already grasping for his Zweihänder, for the materia embedded in its pommel, before he remembered it wasn’t sheathed at his back. “Hang on, Harley, just hang on and don’t fucking die or your bro’s gonna kill me,” he said, his voice cracking; he didn’t care about “cool” at the moment. “Makara, find the handle of my sword!”

He could barely see her through his blurring eyes now, but he saw one of her hands come up to rest on his scarred face. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “You know materia doesn’t always work, right? It’s not going to help now.”

“Don’t fucking say that,” he croaked. “You’re gonna be okay, Jade. Please don’t die on me.”

“I’m…sorry.” Her voice was barely audible now. “I came back when you told me it’d be dangerous.”

Dave didn’t respond right away; he didn’t trust his own voice at the moment. He settled for stroking Jade’s face gently, regretting every time he’d come close to confessing his feelings for her and ended up remaining silent.

He couldn’t let her die without at least telling her.

He bent over her, gently pressing his chapped lips to Jade’s, trying to convey all he hadn’t said while being careful not to hurt her. He let out a choked sob when he realized she was kissing him back, her hand slipping from his face. He pulled away.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed. And she was still smiling – why was she still smiling? He had technically killed her, and she was smiling at him?

“Shh, it’s okay. It’s not your fault.” Her breathing was more ragged, more shallow; she was slipping away. He gathered her gently to his chest, where she leaned her head against his shoulder.

He held her until she slipped away, and even then he couldn’t let go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I remorselessly love depressing/torturing the characters I write about. :D


End file.
